Jun 14 2007
Environment minister, Ian Pearson highlighted the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the start of a three-day workshop on moving towards a low-carbon society.
The workshop is a collaboration between Defra and Japan’s Ministry of the Environment. It aims to establish the practical steps needed to make low-carbon societies a reality, by:
- demonstrating and raising awareness of the benefits of moving to a low-carbon society through sustainable development;
- developing recommendations on how to close the gap between the business-as-usual and low-carbon society scenarios;
- developing the framework for a map of low-carbon society activities.
Mr Pearson said:
“To achieve real global change, developed economies need to show leadership at home – particularly in supporting the move to a low-carbon society.
“The UK-Japan collaboration on low-carbon societies shows what we are able to achieve together and will provide the opportunity to take a decisive step forward in the battle to combat climate change.”
Japanese Ambassador to the UK, Yoshiji Nogami said:
“Tackling climate change is at the top of the agenda between Japan and the UK. This January, Prime Minister Abe and Prime Minister Blair issued the Japan-UK joint statement. In this statement, we identified climate change as one of four key issues for us to work on together. We also agreed to work together on joint research on science and technology for a low carbon society as well. We see 2008 is very crucial from the viewpoint of formulating the post 2012 framework, and in that context, G8 summit in Japan next year is very challenging. I welcome the significant inputs and contribution from this joint project to that process in order to tackle climate change together.”