Back and Fill

By staff repoter TANG SHUBIAO

CANCUN，Mexico - the meaning of “back and fill” is to make a promise and break it in quick succession, now Japan explains this term by its words and deeds.

Let’s look first at a report issued several years ago: The Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement aimed to control global greenhouse gas emissions, came into effect on February 16, 2005. A grand commemorative activity was held that night in Kyoto, Japan.

Japan once regarded the Kyoto Protocol as a glorius accomplishment, however, just five years later it has become a burden to the Japanese. On Nov 30, 2010, Japan again voiced its opposition to its continuation, winning the "Fossil of the Day" award confered by the Climate Action Network (CAN). CAN is a worldwide network of more than 500 non-governmental organizations working to advocate governmental and individual actions to limit human-induced climate change, while promoting ecological sustainability.

This is not the first time CAN has singled out Japan to receive this “award”. During last year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Japan took multiple “Fossil of the Day” awards, for among other things its objection to extending the Kyoto Protocol.

During this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, Japan bluntly announced in several occasions it would not sign up for a second commitment period, saying the treaty covers only a small part of developed countries, representing 27 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion, and excludes major greenhouse gas emitters the United States, China and India.

“As the country that gave birth to the Kyoto Protocol, Japan now is resolutely against it, and this move could prove destructive to progress at the ongoing Cancun climate conference,” said Yang Ailun, a climate campaigner with Greenpeace China. She laments, “As the one and only legally binding agreement on climate protection, the Protocol stands as an important achievement of the global effort to cope with the climate change.”

Yang stresses Japanese responsibility,explaining “ As a developed country, Japan has the obligation to take the lead in dramatically slashing its carbon emissions. It is irresponsible to use the domestic inaction in United States as an excuse to escape its own obligation, and equally wrong to use China - a developing country - as a scapegoat." Considering the severe manifestations of climate change seen recently, every country should take positive action. Any use of the U.S. as an excuse will only turn negotiations into a vicious circle of blame, and obstruct action on climate change.

In fact, prior to the conference the country’s nine industrial alliances jointly pressured the Japanese government to block the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol after 2012. Hence Japan’s back and fill.

“Japan’s position at the negotiation table has been ‘kidnapped’ by its short-sighted domestic industrial groups,” said Yang. “They ignored trends in global emission reductions that mean business opportunities will be knocking on Japan’s door for advanced and efficent energy-saving technology. What they might have ‘accomplished’ is Japan’s loss of advantage in the international competition for this business.”