Japan Refusing to Extend Kyoto Pact

Posted June 16th, 2011 at 6:25 pm (UTC-5)
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Japan is refusing to carry out its pledge to extend greenhouse gas emission cuts after the global treaty known as the Kyoto Protocol expires next year.

Japanese delegates at U.N.-sponsored climate talks in Bonn, Germany say Japan will not promise more cuts unless a new broader agreement is put together. They say the 1997 treaty on cutting emissions has not done enough because such large countries as the United States, India, and China have not joined in.

Russia and Canada also have said they will not agree to extend Kyoto after 2012.

Many scientists blame greenhouse gas emissions for global warming.

Smaller countries, especially island nations, are urging delegates to extend the treaty. They say a warming planet means rising sea levels, which put their very existence in peril.

But the United States has called Kyoto's requirements too costly.

The agreement calls on signatories to cut emissions from cars and power plants 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by next year.

The Bonn meeting is in preparation for a major climate change conference in December in South Africa.