U.N. headquarters: Site of all the inaction.Photo: United NationsThe U.S. was given a starring role at the United Nations Climate Summit on Tuesday, but China stole the show.

President Barack Obama had pride of place on the agenda, as the first head of state to speak to the gathered world leaders, ministers, and climate negotiators.  His speech, which was warmly received, offered rhetorically forceful yet wholly general commentary about the huge risks posed by climate change and the need for action.  Obama said nothing specific about what his nation was prepared to commit to in order to slash its emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.  Most of the speeches by other heads of state charted the same safe territory.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, on the other hand, vowed that China would curb the growth of its greenhouse-gas emissions by a “notable margin” from 2005 levels by 2020.  He said his nation would generate 15 percent of its power from renewables and nuclear by 2020, and plant 150,000 square miles of new forest over that same period.  He also committed to improving energy efficiency and integrating climate action into domestic economic development plans. 

While Hu avoided talk of specific emissions reductions and stressed that developed countries should do more than their developing counterparts, his statements were the most definitive to date about what China is prepared to do to cut and compensate for its carbon emissions.

Al Gore hailed Hu’s speech.  “I think that China has provided impressive leadership,” Gore said.

Humberto Rosa, Portugal’s secretary of state for environment, echoed that sentiment.  “China has today given a little bit of leadership” among the developing nations “by giving solid numbers,” Rosa said.

Gore, Rosa, and others had similar praise for Japan’s new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, who has pledged that his nation will cut emissions 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

These new commitments from Asia’s powerhouses are putting real pressure on the U.S., as is the European Union’s willingness to commit to cuts of 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 if the U.S. will follow suit.

Meanwhile, small island nations—some of whose very existence is threatened by climate change—are also putting on all the pressure they can. 

This past summer, the world’s major economies announced a goal of keeping overall surface warming of the Earth by 2100 to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures.  The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) has challenged the global community [PDF] to keep overall surface warming well below 1.5 degrees C, which would mean even greater cuts than the most ambitious treaty proposals made so far.

A treaty that settles for anything less would spell disaster for island nations, in the view of Dean Bialek, U.N. representative for the nonprofit group Independent Diplomat, who is advising and assisting the AOSIS nations in the climate treaty negotiations. “[It] would mean complete inundation and statelessness,” says Bialek.  “That’s a morally repugnant outcome, and totally unacceptable.”

But despite China, despite Japan, despite the European Union, most observers agree that it will all come down to what the U.S. is prepared to do.  “A firm commitment from the U.S. would make the dominoes fall into place,” Bialek says. 

“With the change in administration in the U.S., everyone believed that a strong deal was forthcoming,” Bialek continued. “Hopes have dimmed a bit due to the mixed signals coming from Washington.”

Portugal’s Rosa says the E.U. still trusts that President Obama wants to fight global warming, but worries that America’s domestic political process could derail this year’s international treaty talks. 

“The American people and the Senate are the real actors now,” Rosa says.  “We’re sure the United States will get there, but we’ll be sorry if it’s not in time for Copenhagen.”

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UNITED NATIONS - Former U.S. vice president and environmental activist Al Gore on Tuesday hailed China and Japan for providing global leadership in tackling climate change.

Speaking at a special U.N. Summit on Climate Change, the Nobel laureate praised statements made by both Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

"I think that China has provided impressive leadership," Gore told reporters.

Predicting that China would take further action if global negotiations on a new treaty succeed, Gore said: "I think the glass is very much half full with China. It's not widely known in the rest of the world but China in each of the last two years has planted two and half times more trees than the entire rest of the world put together," he said.

Chinese President Hu Jintao said that the world's largest developing economy was ready to slow down emissions by a "notable margin." But he said emissions would be measured in terms of China's growth and did not provide a figure.

The United States has led rich nations in demanding that China and other developing nations commit to action in a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose requirements on rich states to cut emissions expire in 2012.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, making his first international appearance since his center-left government took charge, confirmed to the summit that the world's second largest economy would ramp up its commitments.

He pledged that Japan would cut emissions by 25 percent by 2020 compared with the 1990 level, a goal far more ambitious than the previous government's eight percent.

Gore described Hatoyama's speech as "terrific" and said he was "encouraged by his pledge to step up assistance for developing nations. Japan, along with the European Union, has provided tremendous political leadership over the past decade in keeping the world on track toward progress involving the climate crisis," he said.

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Suddenly, unexpectedly, there is a ray of hope in the air, hope that a significant global climate deal may yet be struck at December's talks in Copenhagen. It could herald the start of a successful agreement, or it could dissolve just as rapidly into despair. And the coming week will do much to determine which.

Key high-level meetings, starting Thursday and running until Friday next week, offer an unprecedented -- and probably unrepeatable -- chance to inject political will into the bogged down international negotiations.

But back to that rare ray of optimism. The last session of international climate negotiations, in Bonn in August, got virtually nowhere, just like two others before it, leaving 2,500 points of disagreement to be settled in just 15 days of negotiating time before the delegates assemble in the Danish capital.

Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change and under whose auspices the international talks are held, warned that, at the present rate, "we are not going to make it."

But late last week the phlegmatic Dutchman was sounding much more cheerful. On Friday he told the news agency AFP, on the fringes of a World Economic Forum meeting in China, that he was now "confident we can reach a significant agreement" in December.

And Kim Carstensen, leader of the WWF Global Climate Initiative and one of the most respected NGO representatives, told me on Tuesday that the chances of getting a valuable, if not perfect, agreement are now "more than fifty-fifty."

Much of the change of mood, as indicated in this column last week, has been brought about by what de Boer calls "the dramatic change of position" by Japan, following the landslide election victory by the opposition Democratic Party. The new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, who had campaigned on climate change, promptly announced that this country would cut emissions by 25 percent by 2020, replacing the outgoing government's more modest target. European negotiators privately said last week that this would pressure the EU to raise its own target from 20 to 30 percent, as it has long promised to do if other countries undertook similar commitments.

A second reason for hope has emerged from the EU itself. The European Commission last week concluded that some $145 billion would be needed be developing countries by 2020 to reduce their own emissions and to adapt to climate change. It proposed that Europe should provide between $3 billion and $22 billion, with the rest coming from other developed nations (including the United States), the international carbon markets and the developing countries themselves. This falls far short of what developing countries want, but has lightened the atmosphere, because after twice refusing to do so, the EU is finally starting to put money on the table.

And third is a new attitude in China, where the country's top leaders have been privately promising senior U.S. visitors that the giant country will be "a constructive and positive force" at Copenhagen. Detailed bilateral talks are continuing with hopes of a breakthrough when President Obama visits in mid-November.

Not everyone is voicing optimism. "The Copenhagen deal is hanging in the balance," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said last week, adding that there is a "real danger" of failure. One key concern is whether the UN talks -- and the people participating in them -- can bear the weight of such complex negotiations. Traditionally, the negotiators keep their cards to their chest until the very last minute, only cutting a deal in the early hours of the last night. But many feel that this will just not work in December.

Hence the hopes that the coming week will provide a much needed push. First, on Thursday and Friday comes a meeting of ministers -- the 16-nation Major Economics Forum, the first gathering of the group since their heads of government met in Italy in July and agreed on a 2 degree maximum temperature rise. It is hoped that the MEF will now start to flesh out that agreement.

On Monday there is a summit of the Alliance of Small Island States, small countries but ones that carry much moral authority when they unite, because of their extreme vulnerability to climate change. It is hoped they will come out with a strong position.

Then on Tuesday, leaders of the world's nations meet at the UN in New York for a climate summit, spending part of it in small groups with just a single official each. No great negotiating breakthroughs are expected, or sought, but the aim is to generate new momentum by making it clear to the UN talks that the must succeed.

On Wednesday there will be a small meeting of leaders on cutting emissions from deforestation, and then -- for the next two days -- the baton will pass to the G20 summit of developed and leading developing countries in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, at developing countries's insistence, climate has been moved down the agenda of the summit, but there is still an opportunity to move things forward.

"We are now," says one top European official, "at the beginning of the end game." So perhaps we should be grateful that, at least at this point, there is that small ray of hope.

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The Climate Post is a weekly roundup of climate news, produced by the The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University.

First Things First: When we last left our Senate, Barbara Boxer suggested a bill, similar to the one that the House passed in June, would be ready for the Environment and Public Works committee on its first day back. That was Tuesday. Political reality, the complexity of legislation, and Sen. John Kerry’s  recent hip surgery have together postponed the Senate climate debate. Everyone, even on the many “islands” of the climate archipelago, is talking about health care after the president’s major address last night, and that legislation may take up most of the Senate’s calendar this fall. Boxer has indicated the climate bill will come by the end of the month. Proponents and opponents are unlikely to similarly delay their intensifying debate about economic costs; a New York University center just weighed in with a new “informal analysis” [pdf]. Whatever the course of the bill, other parts of the Capitol are going ahead with their own green reforms.

The Senate delay clouds up skies above Copenhagen, where international climate negotiators will assemble in less than three months to hash out a potential global agreement. Without passage of a Senate bill, the U.S. team is expected to have less clout to pull together the fractured international debate. The United Nations-guided process is riven by disagreements between rich and poor nations. The two most significant from each group, the U.S. and China, will continue their high-level engagements this fall, when President Barack Obama travels to Beijing. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) told reporters in the Chinese capital this week, “I’d place higher odds on the ability of the United States and China to reach an agreement than I would on us passing legislation or on having Copenhagen agreed.”

Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has called for an aggressive national 2020 target of greenhouse gas emission cuts 25 percent below 1990 levels. Echoing statements made by U.S. officials, Hatoyama acknowledged that Japan’s own actions won’t solve the problem, but may speed along international talks. Japan’s largest business group has opposed targets more aggressive than 6 percent reductions. The new goal comes with a sizable caveat, that all other major economies ratify similarly stringent programs.

Oxford Economist Dieter Helm pinpoints a–perhaps the–central problem in international climate policy: Very little in humans’ history of acting as individuals or individual nations (and eschewing outside help), prepares us for a species-wide concern, such as global warming. In a brief excerpt posted by Roger Pielke Jr., Helm questions the utility of the EU reducing its emissions when the looming problem is coal-burning in China and India. One might just as well ask, Why buy solar panels for the roof when the world might see lower net atmospheric carbon levels, and it might be cheaper, if you just bought more efficient refrigerators for carbon-intensive neighbors on either side? (Novelty story of the week: This question would have a different answer if these hair-based solar panels, designed by a Nepalese 18-year-old, worked at scale and solved all energy woes.)

Assembling Armadas: Groups opposed to climate policy earned headlines in August for holding rallies or threatening spectacular legal challenges. The days before Congress’ return were marked by further consternation in the environmental community, when the president’s highly visible “green jobs” tsar, Van Jones, resigned amid controversy over recent comments and past positions. This week environmentalists tried to establish their own momentum, with the launch of Clean Energy Works, a coalition of climate hawks that boasts organizers in 28 states and plenty of voices in Washington. Discussion about how to talk about climate change continues, as Joe Romm at Climate Progress contributes this behind-party-lines look at messaging, highlighting this challenging puzzle: “Tell me in one sentence what team Obama says happens if we fail to pass the climate and clean energy bill.” (The link is rated PG for mild profanity in the headline.)

This announcement overshadowed the latest offering from a growing cadre of national security hawks. For the last several years figures such as former CIA director James Woolsey, former Secretary of State George Schultz, and former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane, have brought attention to the potential defense and geopolitical implications of climate change. They now belong to the Partnership for a Secure America, a bipartisan “who’s who” of former senators, Cabinet secretaries, and White House officials, who have unveiled a letter linking climate change to national security issues and imploring the sitting government to act decisively and promptly.

Uncertain national affairs are weighing down carbon prices in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the carbon market that 10 states participate in from Maine to Maryland. The price for a credit to emit a ton of carbon dioxide has fallen below $2.60, because of the Senate delay, a drop in national gas prices, and general emission levels below original expectations because of the recession.

I was the Walrus: Thousands of Pacific walruses are herding in shallow waters and on land along Alaska’s northwest coast, apparently for reasons less felicitous than to try out the brand new Beatles “Rock Band” game and digitally re-mastered song catalog. This summer looks to be the third most extensive Arctic sea-ice melt on record, behind 2007 and 2005. As the ice vanishes so too does the walruses’ habitat. Clamoring for food and safety on land may bring environmental stresses and crowding that ultimately make shorelines increasingly difficult places for such large congregations.

Geoff Brumfiel at Nature’s “The Great Beyond” picks a head-scratching phase-space graph out of a prominent Royal Society scientific report on geoengineering, and traces how headline-writers struggled with it. The contrasts among the articles in the Register, Financial Times, USA Today, and elsewhere are quite striking (amusing), and reinforce why it’s so nice to have multiple news sources: The differences among them are the best indication of either what’s going on or how difficult it is to ascertain what’s going on.

How to Sound Fancy but Engage in Crass Rhetoric: If you, like Climate Post, are one of the few Americans whose primary association with the word “socialism” is Soviet terror-as-governance and the arbitrary murder of countless millions, then these are confusing times to read about health care and climate debates, in which that moniker seems to apply widely. In a setting as slapdash as this one, the only rebuttal that time permits to Jim Manzi’s recent essay at “The Daily Dish” is a poke at the headline, “The Socialism Implicit in the Social Cost of Carbon.” Just sayin’.

Eric Roston is Senior Associate at the Nicholas Institute and author of The Carbon Age: How Life’s Core Element Has Become Civilization’s Greatest Threat. Prologue available at Grist

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The change in governments in Japan could make Yvo de Boer's job of shepherding a new climate deal easier.World Economic Forum via Flickr"If we continue at this rate we are not going to make it," concluded a grim-faced Yvo de Boer at the end of the latest session of international climate talks in Bonn last month.

Three weeks later, and with just three months and only 15 UN negotiating days until the vital conference in Copenhagen, de Boer's assessment still rings true. Three sessions in the former German capital's modernistic Maritim Conference Center since the beginning of April have failed to make significant progress on a new international climate treaty. But some reasons for hope have very recently begun to emerge.

When the weary participants in the latest session went home on August 14, they left behind 2,500 areas of disagreement -- enclosed in square brackets -- in the 200 pages of the negotiating text. The text so far, as one delegate put it, is little more than a long "laundry list" of countries' positions, with little progress made in reconciling them. "We seem," said de Boer, who as executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is in charge of the climate talks, "to be afloat on a sea of brackets."

All the disagreements will have to be resolved, but there are two big sticking points which have held everything up for months. Developed countries have so far come nowhere near offering the 25-40 percent cut in emissions they agreed to in principle less than two years ago at a negotiating session in Bali, when George W. Bush was still the U.S. president. And they have yet to fulfill promises to come up with a firm offer of finance to help developing ones control their own contribution to climate change and adapt to its ill-effects.

Totting up what has been offered so far in emission reductions is not easy because countries have used different baselines for their cuts and some undertakings are complicated -- but they seem, at best, to add up to only about 15 percent on 1990 levels by 2020, far short of the 40 percent many scientists say is needed.

Only the European Union has so far come anywhere near with its longstanding offer of a 20 percent reduction, rising to 30 percent if other industrialized countries make similar commitments. But as these have failed to emerge, and the recession has taken hold, the EU's original enthusiasm has waned.

The failure over finance is even worse. Developing countries have long made clear that serious money is a precondition of any agreement. But even the EU has now twice refused to put anything on the table, even though it promised to do so by last spring. And, as de Boer says, it is even more "worrying" that "there is little or no clarity on how financial resources are going to be mobilized".

It seems clear that at least $100 billion a year will be needed by 2030. This summer, in an attempt to break the deadlock, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown formally suggested a financial package that would be worth about that figure by 2020 and persuaded leaders at the G8 summit in Italy to study it.

No developed country has yet come out in favor of it, but privately it is beginning to attract some support, most notably from the European Commission. The chances that the EU will finally put an offer on the table this autumn are increasing.

More hopefully still, the landslide election victory by Japan's longtime opposition Democratic Party could provide new impetus to the negotiations. The defeated prime minister, Taro Aso, set them severely back this summer when he announced a target that amounted to cutting emissions by just eight percent from 1990 levels by 2020, just one percent more than the country is committed to meet under the Kyoto Protocol.

The new government, by contrast, is committed to a 25 percent cut, even better than the EU is offering. This willingness to expand cuts in emissions will put pressure on the EU to move to 30 percent, and on other industrialized countries to do better, shifting the balance closer to what is needed.

The talks now move on to a potentially vital phase, when leaders could revitalize the prospects for Copenhagen at a series of summits -- a special climate one at the United Nations in New York in two weeks time, immediately followed by the G20 in Pittsburgh. Though no final decisions will be taken until December's showdown in the Danish capital, progress at the September gatherings -- not least through private conversations between leaders -- could transform the atmosphere for the two remaining sessions of pre-Copenhagen formal talks -- in Bangkok and Barcelona.

Certainly something needs to happen. As de Boer says; "The speed of the negotiations must be considerably accelerated," adding: "It would be incomprehensible if this opportunity were lost."

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Japan’s new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has promised to make ambitious cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, months before world leaders meet for crucial climate change talks.

Hatoyama, who will take office next week, said Japan would seek to reduce CO2 emissions by 25% below 1990 levels by 2020, but said the target would be contingent on a deal involving all major emitters in Copenhagen in December.

“We can’t stop climate change just by setting our own emissions target,” he said at a forum in Tokyo. “Our nation will call on major countries around the world to set aggressive goals.”

The announcement today by Japan’s prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, is not a big surprise (see “Japanese opposition easily wins elections — running on a much stronger climate target“).  But it is nice to see politicians keep their promises — or try to.  The business lobby opposes the target.

Today’s Guardian story notes:

The commitment places Japan firmly among countries committed to aggressive CO2 emissions cuts, despite mounting opposition from business and industry groups, which claim the measures will put jobs at risk.

“We have concerns about its feasibility in view of the impact on economic activities and employment, as well as the enormousness of the public burden,” said Satoshi Aoki, the chairman of the Japan automobile manufacturers’ association.

Harufumi Mochizuki, the outgoing vice minister of trade and industry, said Hatoyama had chosen a “very tough road ahead for the Japanese people and economy”.

Hatoyama said his plan would create jobs in sectors such as renewables and manufacturing amid an expected rise in demand for solar energy, home renovations and energy-efficient cars and consumer electronics.

“There are cautious people who worry that it will hurt the economy and livelihoods, but I think it will change things for the better,” he said.

To help achieve the reduction, Japan will create a domestic emissions trading market and introduce a “feed-in” tariff – financial rewards for industries that expand their use of renewable energy sources.

The Copenhagen talks will be dominated by attempts to persuade China, India and other big emerging economies to sign up to emissions targets.

I’m not certain I’d put it that way.  China, India and the other big emerging economies are not going to sign up to hard emissions targets, but if the rich countries make real commitments — and the U.S. Senate can pass something similar to the Waxman-Markey climate and clean energy bill — then I think China will take on binding commitments that take them sharply off the business as usual emissions path (see “ ‘China will sign’ global treaty if U.S. passes climate bill, E.U. leader says“).  And other key countries are also willing to embrace targets (see “South Korea, a ‘developing’ country, embraces 2020 emissions cap, with important implications for a global deal in Copenhagen“).

The target brings Japan, the world’s fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, alongside the EU, which is committed to a 20% cut by 2020 from 1990 levels and 30% if other nations agree to match the target. But it is still at the lower end of the 25-40% cuts recommended by the UN climate change panel.

Hatoyama will have to reconcile his bold initiative with election pledges to eliminate road tolls and petrol surcharges.

As host of the Kyoto summit in 1997, Japan is keen to reposition itself at the forefront of the battle against climate change. Its emissions rose 2.3% in the year to March 2008, putting it 16% above its 2012 Kyoto target.

The target is certainly an impressive one, and the DPJ deserves kudos.

If Japan can do a 25 percent cut, surely the United States can do a measly 4 percent.

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Around the web:

PARIS, Sept 7, 2009 (AFP) - Japan's announcement Monday of a 25-percent cut in its greenhouse gas emissions could be a game-changer at the UN showdown on climate change in Copenhagen in December, observers said.

It could sweep away the who-jumps-first obsession that has bedevilled the world climate talks for nearly two years, they said.

"For a long time, everybody has been waiting for everybody else to move in the negotiations.... At this crucial point, the strong message from Japan is exactly what is needed," said Denmark's Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard.

"The decision by an important player such as Japan to do more and get serious about a low-carbon future can help break the deadlock between developed and developing countries," said Kim Carstensen of green group WWF.

Saleemul Huq, senior fellow at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London, said Japan's move would hike pressure on other major players ahead of the United Nations' talks on December 7-18.

"It is a very significant step forward," he said.

"The logjam is beginning to be broken. The EU has now been joined by Japan. There's going to be a lot of behind-the-scenes words with other countries to take action."

Breaking dramatically with the policies of his conservative predecessors, Japan's incoming centre-left premier Yukio Hatoyama said his government would seek to cut the country's carbon emissions by a quarter by 2020 from 1990 levels.

Although important details remain sketchy, the 25-percent target is the most ambitious mid-term target set so far by a large, advanced economy and the first to meet a threshold set by UN scientists.

The Copenhagen talks, under the 192-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), aim to craft a post-2012 pact for curbing the heat-trapping gases that drive perilous global warming.

But progress has stagnated amid foot-dragging and finger-pointing. Broadly speaking, rich countries want China, India and Brazil -- already major polluters and set to be the big emitters of tomorrow -- to sign up to strong commitments for tackling their gases.

But the poorer countries say rich economies bear the historical responsibility for warming and should show goodwill by offering deep emissions cuts of their own.

Until now, the lead has been taken by the European Union, which has uniterally decided to cut its emissions by 20 percent by 2020, and offered to deepen this to 30 percent if others follow suit.

Japan, under the outgoing government, had proposed a reduction of eight percent over 1990. The United States would see a reduction of about four percent, under a bill going through Congress.

Huq said it was unclear whether Hatoyama's announcement would trigger a deeper EU cut, as the mechanism by which the Europeans would extend their offer is unclear.

Greenpeace International's Martin Kaiser hoped Hatoyama's "climate leadership" would be emulated by US President Barack Obama.

But he and others also sounded a note of caution, seeing apparent conditions attached to the announcement and fearing the blocking ability of Japan's powerful business lobby, which wants a cut of no more than six percent. Hatoyama said a "prerequesite" for Japan was "a highly ambitious accord with participation by all major countries."

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer praised Hatoyama's target for being "commensurate with what science says is needed."

Under a scenario described by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Change (IPCC), rich countries would have to make cuts of 25-40 percent in these heat-trapping emissions by 2020 as compared with 1990 levels to peg global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

Major emerging economies that are already big carbon polluters would have to brake their emissions growth, although by how much is not yet settled.

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The Cove documents a the hunting of dolphins in one Japanese fishing village.Early on in The Cove, director Louie Psihoyos describes how he assembled an "Ocean's Eleven"-like team of specialists to infiltrate and expose a secret, brutal, for-profit dolphin-killing operation in Japan.

The description fits the film, which is structured more like an action thriller than a documentary. And the team, which includes a pair of world-class free divers, a "clandestine operations" specialist who's discovered Caribbean shipwrecks, a rock concert organizer, and a spiritual surfer dude who co-founded Surfers for Cetaceans. (Cetacea, for marine-illiterate folk, is the order of marine mammals that includes dolphins, whales, and porpoises.)

The Cove documents the work of Ric O'Barry, who in a previous life spent 10 years as a dolphin trainer, most famously for the 1960s TV series Flipper, only to renounce that work and dedicate himself to fighting the dolphin captivity industry. O'Barry's heartbreaking devotion to these highly intelligent mammals, and his deep guilt over Flipper's popularization of trained dolphin shows, form the emotional backbone of film.

O'Barry has been a fly in the ointment to the Japanese coastal town of Taiji for some time now, attracting hostility from the locals for his determination to stop its industry of dolphin capture and slaughter. A classic example of an inspiring breed of activist -- i.e. someone who started on the other side before a crisis of conscience turned him -- O'Barry is unafraid to cross the line in pursuit of his goals. When asked "How many times have you been arrested?" he responded, "This year?"

The movie's unique storytelling style -- a far cry from the academic talking heads and dire government statistics that suffocate most enviro docs -- has earned The Cove much well-deserved critical acclaim already. Night-vision footage of Psihoyos' badass team of eco-guerrillas sneaking into an isolated cove to plant high-def cameras, not to mention the literal bloodbath those cameras recorded, is compelling enough to keep mainstream audiences engaged. For that reason, The Cove serves as a model of how documentaries can stay relevant in today's fast-paced media culture.

Louie Psihoyos directed The Cove.Despite its nail-biting action, effortless pacing, and gruesomely engaging subject matter, The Cove ultimately commits one of the greatest enviro-activist sins: it is, in essence, just another save-the-cute-animals plea. Killing dolphins and then serving the mercury-tainted meat to Japanese schoolchildren is disgusting and immoral. Capturing dolphins and teaching them silly tricks does a great disservice to both them and the human race, which probably has a lot to learn from these skilled communicators. And Japan's continued shirking of international whaling regulations should not be tolerated.

But The Cove gets so caught up in the thrilling suspense of its own story that it neglects to hammer these points home hard enough, allowing O'Barry to toss most of them off without backup from other sources. And when the film ended, in my most cynical heart of hearts, I still had not been convinced of why this atrocity should matter to me personally. The Cove relies on its own shock value and misses an opportunity for a deeper exploration of why this baffling practice occurs, and of what other communities have to learn from it.

What I found more resonant than Taiji's dolphin cruelties was the film's footage from an International Whaling Commission meeting, which revealed the twisted political alliances and back-door dealings that often define international summits. Japan buys off tiny, impoverished nations like Dominica, St. Kitts, and the Marshall Islands, plying them with expensive building projects in exchange for backing for Japan's continued violation of IWC regulations. The sense that this official bribery is a practice not unique to Japan calls into question whether international policymaking bodies can be forces for positive change in the world.

This depressing realization casts a cloud over the The Cove, and, for that matter, the upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen. After all, what does the work of people like O'Barry matter if, in the end, everyone's fate is decided by cold-hearted, suit-wearing bureaucrats, who, behind the closed doors of conference rooms, trade our futures for a few bucks?

Go See It: Where you can see The Cove

Other Reviews: N.Y. Times | L.A. Times | The Washington Post

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What comes to mind when you think of royalty? Luxurious palaces, the Queen of England, and overused puns on Marie Antoinette's infamous one-liner?

How about chemical-free gardens, recycling, and sustainable seafood? Ruling families from around the globe are using their media magnetism and sovereign sway to draw attention to a variety of eco-causes, fighting climate change, greening their homelands, and making sure all that cake we're eating is organic too.

1. Prince Charles of England

An outspoken proponent of fighting climate change, Prince Charles has an across-the-board interest in environmental issues. He's advocated for tropical rainforest preservation through The Prince's Rainforests Project and brought attention to the rapid depletion of global fish stocks. After moving to the Highgrove country estate in Gloucestershire three decades ago, the prince took interest in back-to-basics farming and converted the Home Farm from conventional to organic food production. Deciding that this sustainable farming thing was a brilliant idea, he started Duchy Originals in 1992 to sell organic and sustainably produced goodies, from British tea classics to organic hair and body products.

2. Princess Basma bint Ali of Jordan

Princess Basma has earned a long list of awards and honors for her efforts to bring environmental issues into the limelight in Jordan. After becoming one of the first women in her country to earn navy diving certification, Princess Basma saw firsthand the damage that human waste and neglect have taken on the delicate coral reefs of Jordan's Red Sea coast. This inspired her to form the Jordan Royal Ecological Diving Society, which is focused on conserving Jordan's marine areas and educating citizens about the impacts of their activities on marine life. She also founded the Royal Botanic Garden, preserving the wide array of plants native to Jordan for generations to come. In recognition of these and many more initiatives, Princess Basma was honored with a spot on the U.N. Environment Program's Global 500 Roll of Honor.

3. Prince Albert II of Monaco

The website of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation declares that sustainability and protecting the environment are challenges that require "urgent and concrete action," and Prince Albert II tries to walk the talk, implementing sustainable practices in his own country and urging the world to do likewise. Monaco hosted the second international Ocean in a High-CO2 World symposium last October, during which the Monaco Declaration [PDF] on ocean acidification was drafted, calling for nations of the world to take immediate action to reduce CO2 emissions and thereby prevent damaging changes to ocean chemistry. Prince Albert wrote a foreword to the declaration, urging political leaders to get with the program. Recently, he called for removal of the over-fished bluefin tuna from the menus of all restaurants in the United Kingdom (it's already off all menus and shelves in Monaco). He has also promoted energy efficiency as a way to combat climate change. For efforts such as these, the U.N. named him a Champion of the Earth in 2008.

4. Princess Lalla Hasnaa of Morocco

As president of the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of Environment, Princess Lalla Hasnaa has worked toward the revival of green spaces, better water management, and sweeping environmental education initiatives in Morocco. Cleaning up beaches, urging young people to report on environmental issues, and improving air quality are all in a day's work for this green princess. She says her "heart as a mother and as a Moroccan" is "worried when thinking that our sons and daughters do not have the right to live in a country respecting nature and its beauty." Thanks to her good work, all of Morocco's kids might inherit a greener nation.

Photo: Andrew Smith Lewis5. Princess Takamado of Japan

An avid bird enthusiast, Princess Takamado has championed the cause of avian conservation through her honorary presidency of BirdLife International, urging kids to get involved in the world of bird watching and establishing the Asia Bird Fund. In addition to her efforts on behalf of our feathered friends, she has spread the word about fragile ocean and Arctic environments through Lulie the Iceberg, a picture book for children about a breakaway iceberg's adventure from the Arctic to Antarctica--complete with a companion musical score featuring famed cellist Yo Yo Ma.

6. Princess Chulabhorn Walailak of Thailand

A chemist and medical researcher, Princess Chulabhorn has focused on genetic toxicology and the chemistry of natural products, studying, among other things, the health risks that air pollution poses to traffic police in Bangkok. She founded the International Center for Environmental and Industrial Toxicology, which was designated by the U.N. Environment Program as "a Center of Excellence," and the Chulabhorn Research Institute, which trains scientists and searches for solutions to problems related to the environment, agriculture, and health. In 2002, she was awarded the Environmental Mutagen Society Hollaender International Fellowship [PDF]. She has served as a special adviser to the U.N. Environment Program and was named by the U.N. to direct the Center of Excellence for Environmental and Industrial Toxicology.

7. Prince Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan

A supporter of the DESERTEC Foundation, which promotes massive solar power projects in North Africa, Prince Hassan (brother to Princess Basma) is a staunch advocate of clean, renewable energy. He delivered a swift kick (ahem) to fossil fuels by declaring that they are "a threat to our natural living conditions." Last year he gave a speech [PDF] before the United Nations General Assembly explaining how environmental issues relate to human security. For his efforts on behalf of the environment, this anti-petroleum prince was recognized as a 2007 Champion of the Earth by the U.N. Environment Program.

8. Queen Elizabeth II of England

Earlier this year, Queen Elizabeth (mother of Prince Charles) planted a chemical-free vegetable garden on a patch of the Buckingham Palace grounds--land that hasn't seen food production since the Victory Garden days of World War II. The queen has also expressed concerns about the effects of climate change on the poor and made the royal palaces more Earth-friendly by installing energy-efficient light bulbs and even a mini hydroelectric power plant for Windsor Castle.

Photo: Kanaka

9. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand

Princess Sirindhorn (sister to Princess Chulabhorn) has been involved in projects ranging from preserving the biodiversity of plant life in her country to improving water management. In an address on World Food Day in 2004, she spoke of how "biodiversity plays a key role in sustainable development and poverty alleviation." Recently she visited the Heliocentris headquarters in Berlin to talk about the future of renewable energy.

Photo: Milton Correa 10. King Carl Gustaf of Sweden

What do you have in common with the King of Sweden? If you recycle, then you'd feel right at home in his private kitchen, separating your imperial plastics from your aristocratic cans. King Carl Gustaf attributes his love for the environment to time spent outdoors with his nature-loving mother, but was inspired to take action against climate change after a voyage on an icebreaker with international climate scientists in 2004. He has since installed a pellet-fired boiler at Drottningholm Palace and launched a campaign to raise global awareness about climate change, an effort that won him special recognition in the U.N.-HABITAT Scroll of Honor in 2006. The king reconciles his love for cars with his concern for the environment by advocating for alternative fuels.

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International climate negotiations often seem like some sort of cosmic science fair project -- an aquarium full of hamsters connected to rudimentary motors. There's a lot of frantic running, a lot of sweat and heat, but in the end, very little light.

Faith in the UN climate process has dimmed. Joe Romm calls it a "dead man walking." The Copenhagen talks in December are generally discussed with the same dissonant mixture of urgency ("You have to do it in Copenhagen," says UNFCCC chair Yvo de Boer) and fatalism ("There is no movement," says German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel) as the last dozen rounds of international talks.

The Obama administration knows the danger of sclerosis and is working on several fronts to regain a sense of momentum. A good bit of that work will happen during this busy week, which will take the president to Russia to meet with President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin; he'll deliver a major speech on U.S.-Russia relations today. On Wednesday, he heads to Italy for the latest meeting of the G8 countries (US, France, UK, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada). On Thursday, on the sidelines of the G8, Obama will convene a meeting of the Major Economies Forum (the G8 plus Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa). On Friday he'll head to Ghana and on Saturday he'll deliver a major speech on development and democracy.

At all these events the issue of climate change will play a role. All will reveal something about the Obama administration's approach to international climate negotiations.

The Grand Plan

International climate negotiations have primarily been channeled through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, but many in the international community are losing faith in that process, or at least in its monopoly on negotiations. Getting 192 countries to sign on to a meaningful treaty is nigh impossible; the lowest common denominator among 192 wildly diverse countries turns out to be pretty damn low.

Oddly, it was the Bush administration that first saw a way around the thicket. In May 2007 it announced a series of Major Economies Meetings on climate and energy security. The idea was that the largest greenhouse gas emitters could more easily find areas of agreement working directly with one another, and that what consensus they could find would help break the logjam in the UNFCCC process.

The sincerity of Bush's effort was widely doubted -- he (in)famously advocated for purely voluntary measures -- but the basic wisdom of the strategy is apparent to, among others, the Obama administration. In fact Obama seems to be taking it even farther, working not only with smaller groups like the Major Economies Forum (MEF) and the G8, but bilaterally with other large emitters. What shape these smaller deals take could vary, from shared targets to technology R&D agreements, but again, the idea is to show that big emitters are finally acting, taking real steps. This will, it is hoped, cut through the Gordian you-go-first knot sure to bedevil the Copenhagen climate talks.

The strategy began with Todd Stern's initial efforts in China, but "you can definitely say we are looking for other partners," an administration official said.

Russia

Most members of the international community had written Russia off when it comes to climate change. It grudgingly ratified Kyoto back in 2004, serving as the crucial final signatory needed to put the treaty into effect. But since then it's focused on nothing but often dirty and inefficient means of expanding its economy. Just last month, in what many interpreted as a thumb in the eye of the UN process, it announced a "climate plan" that would increase its greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2020.

The reason Russia, a Kyoto signatory, can grow its emissions so heedlessly is that emission baselines for the UN process were set at 1990 levels. Of course in 1992 Russia's economy cratered, and with it the country's emissions. The damage was so great that the economy would need to grow substantially to meet a target of 10-15% below 1990 levels by 2020 -- and that's what it plans to do.

Most observers expected Obama to focus exclusively on arms control and the financial crisis when he goes to Russia, since progress on climate seems so hopeless. But as The Guardian reports, the administration fully intends to forge a deal on joint climate action. It's been pulling its ideas from a new report from the Center on American Progress.

The goal is to coax Russia into accepting strong sticks (mandatory targets at the Copenhagen talks) by offering it carrots. One is help entering carbon trading markets. The country is thought to be sitting on some 1.9 billion euros worth of carbon credits -- one of the main reasons it signed Kyoto -- but the government does not have the capacity or infrastructure to monitor emissions and approve projects. The U.S. could help with that, since it has considerable experience with such markets.

The other carrot is efficiency. Russia's energy intensity -- energy use per unit of GDP -- is twice America's, and the highest among the world's high energy consuming countries. Targeted exchange of efficiency technology and know-how could not only bend Russia's emissions curve but make its economy more productive. It's a win-win, but again, the government needs help. (Interestingly, Russia just announced that it will ban some incandescent lights by 2011.)

No big U.S.-Russia agreements on climate are expected this week, but Monday saw the introduction of a working group on energy, formed as part of a high-level bilateral commission created out of the summit. Steven Chu will chair the group on the US side.

G8 + MEF

The MEF is a smaller group of countries than the full UNFCCC, but it's still large and diverse, and there are enormous challenges in the way of getting a substantive agreement this week. Here are a few:

China + India

The overwhelming short-term priorities for developing countries are poverty reduction and economic development, driven in part by coal-based power. That's why China and India have both recently signaled that they will not commit to any binding GHG reduction targets. No, seriously, they won't. Says Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh, “India will not accept any emissions targets -- period. It is the bottom line; a non-negotiable stand. This is not something that India is going to budge on, under any circumstances." OK then!

Both countries (India; China) have also recently expressed ostentatious outrage about the possibility that the United States will impose "carbon tariffs" on imported goods. (A border adjustment provision was inserted in the Waxman-Markey bill before it passed the House.) Developing countries warn of an incipient trade war. Of course, as John Kemp points out, the provisions in the bill are not actually carbon tariffs but "carefully structured as import permits specifically to ensure they are consistent with World Trade Organisation rules." And sure enough, the WTO has signaled that the import permits are legal. China and India fear them.

Obama has spoken publicly against the border adjustments, but as Brad Plumer notes, it's helpful to have that stick in hand to make the carrots look better. (Todd Stern didn't have it when he went to China early last month.)

Of course China is hardly sitting on its hands. It's green stimulus package was both larger and greener than America's. Just this month it boosted its renewable energy targets to 15% by 2020. It looks set to swamp the U.S. in both wind and solar investment this year; between now and 2020, it's expected to spend more on renewables and nuclear than on oil and coal.

The central government has established the State Council's Expert Panel on Climate Change Policy to work on energy development plans that will involve trillions in investment. "Roughly, we need to spend an extra 1 trillion yuan every year to raise energy efficiency," said panel member Bai Quan. Just as importantly, maybe more so, it announced that regional government officials will be judged by reductions in carbon intensity instead of purely by economic growth. Getting career bureaucrats on board is essential to making sure the central planners' schemes become reality. The green shift is dispersing into rural areas as well.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will head to China later this month to talk turkey. Says Chu, "It's in our interest and China's to explore ways to cooperate for our mutual benefit--by promoting renewable energy, encouraging energy efficiency and cutting pollution." Chu's assistant secretary David Sandalow is hosting a high-level discussion on engaging China on CCS this Thursday in D.C.; a second, focused on finance and political barriers, will happen soon thereafter.

You can imagine Chu announcing a splashy post-combustion CCS development project, or an investment in solar thermal projects, in exchange for back-channel agreements on a timeline for the country to accept hard emission reductions targets (and back off on border adjustment fussing).

What's next

Japan and Brazil are among the other countries with which Obama may pursue bilateral deals, possibly before Copenhagen. The big sticking point with Brazil is avoided deforestation. They don't want it paid for via carbon credits, through the Reduced Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) program -- they want it paid for with cold hard cash (so old-fashioned!). So far, no one except Norway is biting.

If all goes well -- an enormous if, of course -- the U.S. negotiating team arrive at Copenhagen with a web of bi- and multi-lateral side deals on clean energy technology sharing, adaptation research, development assistance, trade deals, and more. The world's biggest polluters will arrive with agreements in hand. Developing countries will see signs of real movement on the part of developed nations and soften their rigid opposition to targets.

And out of it all will come a stronger, more robust climate treaty, scaffolded by the self-interest of the many countries invested in side deals premised on continued international action.

That's the hope anyway. Needless to say: domestic achievements notwithstanding, if Obama can pull it off he'll be assured of a place in history.

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At the Bonn climate talks, environmental groups showed their displeasure with Japan's proposed carbon emissions cuts by comparing Prime Minister Aso with former U.S. president George W. Bush.Climate Action Factory via Flickr
Even the skies wept last week when the latest cold front slammed into the ongoing effort to draft a new international climate treaty. The weather had been generally fine and sunny in Bonn during the early part of the two-week gathering, and participants in the talks had taken to sitting out on the terrace of the Maritim hotel and conference center to escape the atmosphere inside.

Then, towards the end of Wednesday morning, the rain fell, sending everyone scurrying indoors, washing out their abandoned coffee cups and stopping suddenly soggy bumblebees from getting airborne.

The cold shower on the terrace was matched by a figurative one inside, as news broke of Japan's emissions target for 2020 -- a declaration that makes it even harder for an effective agreement to get off the ground in time for December's crucial climate conference in Copenhagen.

Japan's prime minister, Taro Aso, announced what he claimed to be an "ambitious" pledge to cut emissions by 15 percent from 2005 levels. That might not have seemed too bad as an opening bid, except for the unfortunate fact that Japan's emissions have risen significantly since 1990, the base year used for reductions under the Kyoto Protocol.

When measured by that yardstick, the target amounts to a cut of just eight percent. That's only slightly higher than the target the country was supposed -- but is comprehensively failing -- to meet under Kyoto, a paltry bit of progress despite 12 years of steadily amassing evidence that climate change is happening much faster and much more seriously than anyone expected when the treaty was agreed to in 1997.

Asked for his reaction at a press conference, Yvo de Boer -- who, as executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, is in charge of the negotiations -- paused dramatically. Then he spoke: "For the first time in two and a half years on this job", he told us, "I don't know what to say."

Others were not so reticent. Climate campaigners rushed out a poster carrying a composite picture of the prime minister and the last U.S. president, emblazoned "George W. Aso." Yu Qingtai, China's climate envoy, said the target was not close "to what Japan needs to do," while WWF said Japan's target set "the wrong tone for the negotiations" and "makes reaching a good deal even harder."

Indeed, this was just the worst example of a general failure by the world's richest nations to come anywhere near the 25-40 percent cuts on 1990 levels demanded by scientists, which they themselves endorsed in principle just 18 months ago at end of a negotiating session in Bali. The Bonn talks, which ended on Friday, were supposed to finalize an "aggregate target" in this range for all of them.

No such aggregate target was agreed to. Worse, adding up all the individual goals so far announced by developed countries showed they so far amount to a cut in emissions of between 8 and 14 percent, which would give the world virtually no chance of keeping its temperature increase below two degrees centigrade, and thus avoid dangerous climate change.

And that was not the only failure in Bonn. Rich countries did even less on the crucial issue of providing money to help poor ones control their own emissions and adapt to the ill-effects of climate change. Not only did they fail to come up with a figure of what would be needed, but they did not produce any concrete suggestions on how the funds would be raised, managed or disbursed. (And, while the conference was going on, EU finance ministers for a second time postponed a decision on how much they would offer.)

Just about all that was achieved was to add some 200 pages to the 68-page negotiating text that was put on the table at the start of the meetings as countries attached their amendments to it. They will all now come back to Bonn in August to try to start whittling it down.

The atmosphere at the talks was friendly, but the United States, which had been warmly welcomed back into the fold at the last talks in March, began coming under heavy fire again. Karen Orenstein of Friends of the Earth US, said that after initially arousing "tremendous hope" worldwide, "the Obama administration's position at these negotiations sounds frighteningly similar to that of George Bush."

More generally, Shyam Saran, India's special envoy, lamented: "There has been hardly any progress on achieving the key objective of our negotiations...which must be equal to the scale we face from global climate change."

As Jennifer Morgan of E3G -- a London-based group that works on sustainability issues -- put it: "We have advanced perhaps a couple of miles towards Copenhagen. We still have thousands to go."

Indeed. And there will doubtless be many more cold showers on the way.

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TOKYO—Japan plans to soon require electricity companies to buy surplus power generated by household solar panels at about twice the current price, a government official said Tuesday.

The scheme, to start as early as the fiscal year beginning in April, aims to promote solar power as part of efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions that drive global warming, an industry ministry official said.

“Japan has already led solar power technology in the world,” the official told AFP. “With the scheme, we would like to firmly secure the lead.”

Japan’s utilities now voluntarily buy surplus electricity from domestic solar panels at around 24 yen (25 cents) per kilowatt hour, he said.

The ministry plans to submit a bill to parliament that would make it mandatory for power companies to purchase the unused solar power from households at around 50 yen per kilowatt hour, the official said.

The premium rate, which could be set for 10 years, would help homes and companies recover the initial cost of installing photovoltaic cell systems.

Electricity companies would be expected to raise charges for conventional power to meet the additional expense.

Trade Minister Toshihiro Nikai Tuesday informed the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan about the scheme, and federation officials agreed to “cooperate” in introducing it, the official said.

Japan has pledged a 10-fold increase in solar power use by 2020 from current levels and aims to halve prices of solar power systems in about four years.

Resource-poor Japan has looked for ways to reduce its dependency on foreign oil, while vowing to reduce carbon emissions by up to 80 percent by 2050.

Japan, which hosted talks that led to the Kyoto Protocol, is badly behind in meeting its own targets under the UN treaty, as the government has hesitated to restrict industrial carbon output amid the current economic crisis.

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TOKYO—Animal rights activists said Monday they were ending their harassment of Japanese whalers in the Antarctic for the season, warning that a person could get killed if the confrontation escalated.

Japan has been stepping up international pressure to try to rein in the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has vowed to physically stop the slaughter of the ocean giants.

Sea Shepherd said its ship, the Steve Irwin, which collided last week with a whaling vessel, was heading back to Australia with only four days of fuel reserves left.

“Another four days is simply not worth getting someone killed,” said Paul Watson, the Canadian captain of the ship.

“We have done everything we could with the resources available to us this year,” he said in a statement. “We have cost them money and we have saved the lives of a good many whales.”

He vowed to return next season—and said he hoped to come with a faster ship to hassle the whaling fleet.

“I intend to be their on-going nightmare every year until they stop their horrific and unlawful slaughter of the great whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.”

Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, hunts up to 850 whales each year in the Antarctic Ocean despite strong objections from political allies Australia and New Zealand.

But for the previous two seasons Japan’s catch was curbed largely because of harassment by environmentalists.

Japan kills whales using a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling that allows “lethal research” on the mammals, and makes no secret of the fact that the animals’ meat is then served as food.

Only Norway and Iceland defy the whaling moratorium altogether.

Japan last week summoned the ambassador of The Netherlands, where the Steve Irwin is registered, to demand it take action against the environmentalists.

Asked if the diplomatic protest led to Sea Shepherd’s decision, Toshinori Uoya of the Fisheries Agency told AFP: “As we have repeatedly said, their activity is illegal and unforgivable.”

“They have to be punished based on international law and The Netherlands, as its nationality is on the ship, bears primary responsibility for the crackdown,” Uoya said.

He added that the whalers would maintain security precautions despite Sea Shepherd’s withdrawal.   “We don’t know why they are stopping their attacks against us this season, but we don’t trust anything they say. They may return to attack us again,” he said.

Japan has complained after activists hurled bottles of rancid butter at the whalers and tried to board the ship.

Sea Shepherd in turn accused Japan of crossing the line by deploying acoustic weapons, which send out high-frequency sound waves to disorient the activists.

The environmentalists said that use of the sonic weapons left three of their crew with injuries, with one man requiring five stitches above his left eye.

Unlike Sea Shepherd, the more mainstream environmental group Greenpeace this season held off from chasing the whalers.

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TOKYO—Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso will order his ministries to draft a “Green New Deal” this week to counter the twin threats of climate change and the economic downturn, a report said Sunday.

Aso will order a stimulus package focusing on slashing greenhouse gases at a meeting of his global warming advisory panel Wednesday, the business daily Nikkei said citing unnamed government sources.

The report came as new US President Barack Obama vowed to lead the world on climate change as he set about shredding his predecessor’s global warming policies with new measures to encourage the development of fuel-efficient cars.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also called for a “Green New Deal” at a UN climate conference in Poland in December.

Japan, which has pledged to reduce carbon emissions up to 80 percent by 2050, will announce its mid-term target by June, Aso said in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month.

At Wednesday’s meeting, his government will present various plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 15 percent from 1990 levels by the year 2020, the Nikkei said.

The panel will then canvass opinions from a range of people including business leaders before making formal recommendations to the premier in June, the report said.

The initiative may require a 20-fold increase in tapping solar power and a 40 percent boost in the use of next-generation environmentally friendly cars percent, it added.

Leaders of the G8—Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States—agreed at their summit last year to cut carbon emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050.

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Last year, Japan's greenhouse-gas emissions reached record levels, hitting 1.5 billion tons of CO2 equivalent -- an increase of some 2.3 percent. Much of the rise was due to an earthquake shutting down the world's largest nuclear plant in northwestern Japan, which pushed utilities to rely more on fossil fuels. But critics have also said the country's voluntary measures aren't doing enough to reduce emissions.

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Industrialized countries have promised to put more than $6.1 billion in the World Bank's Climate Investment Funds, which aim to boost clean technologies and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in developing countries. On Friday, the United States pledged $2 billion over three years; Britain will chip in $1.47 billion and Japan $1.2 billion, with contributions from Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland making up the rest. Two trust funds will be created under the Climate Investment Fund umbrella: The Clean Technology Fund will invest in projects that "contribute to the demonstration, deployment, and transfer of low-carbon technologies" and "have a significant potential for long-term greenhouse-gas savings"; the Strategic Climate Fund will "serve as an overarching fund for various programs to test innovative approaches to climate change." The World Bank will announce the first beneficiaries of the funds in early 2009.

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Tokyo, Japan, is on track to pass a bill on Wednesday that would limit the amount of greenhouse gases big companies in the city could emit, making it the first such mandatory program in the country. The city's 1,300 largest emitters are responsible for some 20 percent of Tokyo's total greenhouse-gas emissions. The bill aims to cap emissions from factories as well as office buildings starting in 2010, though the specific target will be hashed out sometime this fall. Businesses that fail to cooperate will be fined some $4,630, or the city will do the emissions trading for them and charge companies for the costs.

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