JAPAN VOWS $100M FOR CLIMATE CONTROL

[Anonymous]

Japan Vows $100 Million for Climate Control
KYOTO,
Japan (May07) – Japan pledged $100 million in grants to the Asian
Development Bank on Sunday to combat global warming  and promote
greener investment in the region and called for a stronger
international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions.The money is
part of a new initiative by the government in Tokyo to support
sustainable development in response to increasing concern that Asia’s
breakneck economic growth is destroying the environment. It comes just
days after a breakthrough agreement in Thailand set the world’s first
roadmap for fighting climate change.

Addressing environmental
problems is a priority at the ADB, which was founded four decades ago
to fight poverty through economic growth. The ADB is working to counter
the mentality that poor nations that want progress must sacrifice the
environment — and criticism that the bank funds rampant development.”I
think for quite some time, Asia has made the assumption that you grow
first and worry about the environment later,” ADB Managing Director
General Rajat Nag said. He said regional governments no longer believed
“that the environment is something you don’t need to worry about
today.”Over the last three decades, Asia’s energy consumption has grown
by 230 percent, and it is expected to double again by 2030, ADB
President Haruhiko Kuroda said Sunday. The region already accounts for
a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions — a leading cause of
global warming.Japan, which has the biggest voting power in the ADB
along with the United States, will channel up to $100 million into two
new funds — the Asian Clean Energy Fund and the Investment Climate
Facilitation Fund.Japan will also provide up to $2 billion in loans to
the Asian Development Bank over the next five years to promote general
investment in the region.The $100 milllion in grants is intended to
promote renewable energy resources, such as solar power, and encourage
environmentally friendly infrastructure. The money is also aimed at
attracting greener investment.The bank, which currently spends $1
billion a year on clean energy, has come under criticism for funding
coal projects, which are vilified as fanning global warming. The bank
says coal is more economical for poor countries.Organizers hope the
ADB’s environmental agenda will get a boost from the host city, Kyoto,
where an international protocol to fight global warming was born 10
years ago.Japanese Finance Minister Koji Omi said it was time for
something stronger than the Kyoto accord and called for “a new,
practical and effective framework in which all countries, including the
United States, China and India, will participate.”

On Friday in
Bangkok, delegates from 120 countries approved the first blueprint for
stemming greenhouse gas emissions, laying out what they said was an
affordable arsenal of anti-warming measures that must be adopted.The
report, a summary of a study by a U.N. network of 2,000 scientists,
said the world has to make significant cuts in gas emissions through
increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and vehicles, shifting
from fossil fuels to renewable fuels, and reforming both the forestry
and farming sectors.

[Author]

May 8, 2007 at 12:08 PM