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Source: AFP.com
AFP, 11 April 2008 - The prime ministers of Japan and France said Friday they wanted to put global warming high on the agenda for the Group of Eight summit and hailed nuclear power as a way to reduce carbon emissions.
Japan will host the G8 summit in the northern mountain resort of Toyako from July 7 to 9, days after France takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union.
"We agreed to jointly tackle various issues facing the international community such as development in Africa and climate change," Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said after talks with his visiting French counterpart Francois Fillon.
Japan, home of the Kyoto Protocol, hopes the G8 summit will give direction to negotiations to come up with the most ambitious treaty yet on fighting global warming by a deadline of the end of 2009.
Fillon said Japan and France "are major political partners which share a common vision for the world's future," and he called for wealthy countries to take the lead in the battle against climate change.
"Industrialised countries have an essential role in showing the way towards a type of growth that emits less carbon and in inviting emerging countries to participate in the fight against global warming," Fillon said.
In a joint statement, Fillon and Fukuda said they "share the same vision of a nuclear energy's paramount role for prosperity and sustainable development in the 21st century."
The two countries have chosen nuclear power "as a key component of their energy plans to ensure energy that is safe, competitive and without CO2 emissions," the statement said.
France is the only G8 member to rely on nuclear energy for most of its power and has actively promoted nuclear technology overseas.
Japan comes in second in the G8 with about one-third of its energy coming via nuclear plants, despite visible public opposition in the only nation that has been attacked with atomic bombs.
The Group of Eight comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
The European Union has led calls for rich nations to slash emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming by 25 to 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.
Japan has been cautious about further binding cuts and stressed the need to bring developing countries on board. Fast-growing emitters such as China and India had no obligations under Kyoto, leading the United States to boycott the treaty.
Fillon is the highest ranking French official to visit Japan since the election nearly one year ago of President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has travelled to China and India but not Japan.
Fillon's trip is meant in part to promote business in Asia's largest economy. On Saturday, he will head to a major nuclear plant built in northern Japan with France's Areva.
Areva's chief executive, Anne Lauvergeon, is accompanying Fillon and on Thursday said the company had secured two billion euros (3.2 billion dollars) in nuclear deals with Japanese firms.
But France has had little luck in Japan's aviation sector. European air giant Airbus Industrie holds less than five percent of the market in Japan, whose airlines are loyal customers of US rival Boeing Co.
The joint statement said France wanted Airbus "to enjoy a part of the Japanese market that is closer to what it enjoys on the world stage."
"This is a very important statement," Fillon said. "For the first time, it indicates what Airbus is expecting in the Japanese market."
This article is reproduced with kind permission of Agence France-Presse (AFP) For more news and articles visit the AFP website.
