Top transport officials from 21 major countries agreed on Friday to promote a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in the sector to combat climate change, aiming to drive talks under a broader UN framework. Shipping, airline and inland transport, which together contribute over 20 percent of mankind's CO2 emissions, will be a key part of a new UN climate pact that about 190 nations will try to agree on at the year-end as a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.
The officials, including ministers from the European Union, Australia and Russia, met in Tokyo for a three-day conference that ended on Friday. India sent its counsellor, Malaysia attended as an observer, while China, now believed to be the world's top greenhouse gas polluter, pulled out at the last minute.
"It is the first ministerial declaration ever and it was from major countries that account for about 70 percent of CO2 emissions from the global transport sector," said Japanese transport minister Kazuyoshi Kaneko, who chaired the meeting. "It is quite important to send a message that we have the political will (to address the transport sector)," Kaneko told a news conference at the end of the gathering.
Despite concerns among many developing countries that efforts to fight climate change will undermine economic growth, the officials agreed they could seek a low-carbon, low-pollution future for the transport sector while ensuring sustainable growth.
The ministerial statement said the countries recognise the need for the transport sector to act on CO2 emissions and air pollutants, which would also result in energy savings as well as health and safety benefits. Kaneko said it was disappointing that China, which had insisted that the ministerial statement exclude emissions cut measures for developing countries and that rich nations lead the charge in lowering emissions, did not attend, though he did not think it affected the value of the meeting.
China's absence underlines the difficulty of reaching a post-Kyoto pact at the December UN climate meeting in Copenhagen. Preparatory talks in Poznan, Poland, last month ended with developing nations accusing industrialised states of doing too little to help them cope with climate change.
"Distrust is brewing among developing countries against developed countries," said Naoyuki Yamagishi, head of the climate change programme at WWF Japan. That is because some rich nations, including Japan, have been reluctant to announce medium-term emission cut targets, and many paid little attention to proposals on financing to help developing countries on their mitigation plans.