Japan in 1997:
Japan today:
Cancún climate change summit: Japan refuses to extend Kyoto protocol
Talks threatened with breakdown after forthright Japanese refusal to extend Kyoto emissions commitments
* John Vidal guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 December 2010 18.16 GMT
Japan refuses to extend Kyoto protocol. ‘The forthrightness of the statement took people by surprise,’ said one British official
The delicately balanced global climate talks in Cancún suffered a serious setback last night when Japan categorically stated its opposition to extending the Kyoto protocol – the binding international treaty that commits most of the world’s richest countries to making emission cuts.
The Kyoto protocol was adopted in Japan in 1997 by major emitting countries, who committed themselves to cut emissions by an average 5% on 1990 figures by 2012.
However the US congress refused to ratify it and remains outside the protocol.
The brief statement, made by Jun Arima, an official in the government’s economics trade and industry department, in an open session, was the strongest yet made against the protocol by one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases.
He said: “Japan will not inscribe its target under the Kyoto protocol on any conditions or under any circumstances.”
The move came out of the blue for other delegations at the conference.
more at the Guardian
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Reality bites, when Japan says something so blunt, you know they mean it – Anthony
h/t to WUWT reader Steve (Paris)
UPDATE: I’ve made this a “sticky” to stay at the top of WUWT awhile – Anthony
Have any Kyoto signatories actually reduced CO2 emissions?
Good heavens! It’s a miracle!
“Kyoto has achieved precisely nothing.” Au contraire.
In addition to what has been previously mentioned:
11. Facilitated the shift of heavy industry from Western Europe to India, China and elsewhere.
12. Transferred funds from Europe to developing countries for dubious carbon reduction projects.
13. Increased HFC-22 and its byproduct HFC-23 (ozone depleting gases).
14. Induced Enron, GE, and others to become significant contributors to the Democrat Party.
15. Revealed how corrupt a carbon trading system would be.
16. Undermined prospects for healthy economic growth in the United Kingdom.
17. Confirmed how bad negotiators U.S. has. (Dates and methodologies helped others, not U.S.)
18. Removed any sense of respect for the Nobel Peace Prize.
19. Detoured the environmental movement away from real environmental movement.
20. Pointed out the amazing wisdom in Eisenhower’s farewell speech.
OT: Amazing image of the UK covered in snow.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11901718
Japan is a country with few resources. They exist primarily on their skill and ingenuity in importing raw materials and exporting products for a profit. They have built their economy from ruin after WWII to a first class world power today. The Japanese pursue any advantage they can exploit to advance their economy.
The Kyoto Treaty was once view in Japan as placing burden on their competition, but now is view as a complete loser for all parties concerned. Supporting Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming has gone from a financial positive to a financial negative, and the Japanese are abandoning it as quickly as they can.
When the influential and powerful pull their money out of a movement, it soon retreats to the shadows. CAGW has lost its unquestioned dominance of environmental affairs. CAGW will soon be regulated down to a basement office next to the one occupied by the Great UFO Conspericy.
An Inquirer says:
December 2, 2010 at 10:39 am
21. Make 38 billion Danish Kroners to disappear. Ask Connie Hedengaard.
Cancun, Obamas Pearl Harbour.
Baa Humbug says:
December 2, 2010 at 9:20 am
Hey don’t laugh, my local RSPCA asked me to take in a rescued turkey a few weeks ago. Belonged to an unkind person apparantly.
Guess the RSPCA will have to launch a Christmas Appeal this year as there are 22,000 mammalian AGW gravy trainers in serious distress in Cancun… but if you decide to adopt one of these poor sunburnt AGW gravy trainers then please remember: AGW gravy trainers are for life – not just Christmas.
@Sean Peake Are you implying that we are going to get Bach to reality?
Its so obviously dead in the water.
They probably felt that Kyoto was getting a bad name simply by association.
Why tie themselves to the tortoise economies when they have the tigers for neighbours?
From Bloomberg:
Japan said it won’t help extend the Kyoto Protocol accord to curb greenhouse-gas emissions after its targets expire in 2012, urging instead work on a new global agreement to combat climate change.
The Kyoto treaty is “outdated” because it only regulates 27 percent of global emissions, Kuni Shimada, special adviser to Japanese Environment Minister Ryu Matsumoto, said yesterday in an interview at United Nations climate talks in Cancun, Mexico.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-30/world-shouldn-t-wait-for-u-s-resolution-on-climate-agreement-japan-says.html
The delegates were whooping it up the other day according to a video of dancing, drinking and pigging out. I guess this is the hangover.
We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.
—C. S. Lewis
FerdinandAkin says:
December 2, 2010 at 10:45 am
Japan is a country with few resources.
You might not be saying that in the next few years…. Clathrate To Production http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/clathrate-to-production/
jeremy says:
December 2, 2010 at 8:33 am
So the country that hosted that farce now rejects it. Can you get a better example of rejection of this political agenda?
You are implying that Japan did not act truthfully. No, I think oriental people think not for the “minute” but they use “Lang Tong” (long sight): They surely thought: “What is the use of opposing it if they are so convinced….we’ll change it in a few years”
I saw an interview, during one of the APEC’s summits: A journalist asked China’s President what did he opine about his country “communist revolution”, referring to the great capitalist development of the last years; to what he responded that it has passed more than two hundred years of the French Revolution and we still did not know its results. That was really meaningful!. This is real as we are now questioning those principles of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”as opposed to fruitful individualism.
Am I honoured! A hat tip from Anthony
Here in Canada the MSM is not reporting on Cancun, nothing, nada, not a mention on the CBC (normally the CBC is vocally alarmist) or the Liberal Toronto Star ! Whats going on or have I missed something.
Looks like someone forgot to pass out the pedometers to the attendees from Japan.
@Sean Peake says:
December 2, 2010 at 8:43 am
Cue music: Fugue in G minor
I prefer this piece by Chopin. I consider it to be quite appropriate.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fg9hdAiQMQ&fs=1&hl=en_GB]
From Kyoto to Cancun
The party boat cruised on,
But at the vote
It ceased to float;
The Japanese were gone.
They’d lost too many yen
To climate salesmen
Whose tales of fear
Are stale beer;
Cancun no longer cons.
Ah, so! Japan decided not to commit economic Hari Kari and hand over the reins of economic prosperity to China! Bravo!!!!
I think this is very interesting. The Japanese are careful clever people so they wont be doing this for the fun of it.
For all our UK people havent the BBC gone deadly quiet about Cancun with the recent record breaking cold temps?
Normally they would have been banging the AGW drum till your ears bled.
The BBc are sly f…% ers to they will regroup and classify the UK’s current record breaking cold temps as a sign of “Climate Change”
Anthony,
Watt are you going to do for fun if this whole stupid thing evaporates, due no doubt to global warming?
If this thing reverts to a scientific interest and not a political imperative, the science might clean up all by itself and we might then all go on to the next apocalypse du jour.
It is acceptable to expect that the BRIC countries and South Africa, and the US, still won’t have it either. If only the EU were sensible! But they keep spending zillions promoting CAGW.
” CAGW will soon be regulated down to a basement office next to the one occupied by the Great UFO Conspericy”
I think you mean, Ferdinand Akin, the great UNO (+EU, WWF, Greenpeace etc) conspiracy, and I do so wish that were true.
Great news!
Now if we can only get California to follow…