Japan's shortage of proposals sinks its hopes of environmental leadership
TOKYO — All the pieces were in place: a historic gathering of world leaders, a powerful nation professing an eagerness to show leadership, and a global environment aching for a cure.
But Japan had taken few concrete proposals to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro despite much hype about its desire to seize the initiative on environmental problems.
In fact, the Japanese delegation of more than 100 people, one of the largest at the summit, might not even have a leader. The delegation head was supposed to be Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa.
But he was bogged down in Parliament this week with problems stemming from the nation’s last major bid for respectability in international politics: a long-debated Bill to send troops abroad for UN peacekeeping.
Mr Miyazawa’s governing Liberal Democratic Party did intend to spring him in time to deliver a speech in Rio by the end of the Earth Summit on June 14, political sources said.
But the Cabinet’s official position was that his plans were undecided. And an official with the Environmental Agency, Mr Tsuneo Takeuchi, said that his Earth Summit team was "gnashing our teeth" over what Japan would say in a summit address planned for today.
In April, Japan staged an "Eminent Persons’ Meeting" on financing environmental solutions at which officials floated the idea of a tax on industries that were heavy producers of carbon dioxide emissions, which scientists said contributed to global warming.
"Japan will take the initiative" on the global environment, former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, who is also in Rio, declared.
In Parliament on Tuesday, however, Mr Miyazawa played down the possibility of such a tax. Business leaders, citing Japan’s economic slowdown, have opposed it and the governing party faces a tough national election next month.
Similar reasons have shpt down efforts in the United States to raise energy taxes.
Critics said it was this kind of governmental dithering that continued to sink Japan’s hopes for global leadership of any kind.
"It’s really a shame. This is one issue Japan could really take leadership on," said Ms Aileen Mioko Smith, a leading environmental activist in Japan.
She noted that Japan’s success at transforming itself from one of the world’s worst industrial polluters to one of the cleanest advanced economies could make it a role model for developing nations.
Japan has also become a leading exporter of environmental technology such as smokestack-scrubbers.
Mr Maurice Strong, secretary-general of the Earth Summit, said in a speech in Japan in April that "no nation has had more experience in the successful integration of the environment with its economy".
"Japan could lead the world along this new pathway to a secure and sustainable future." he said. — AP.
Source : The Straits Times, June 5, 1992
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