A EU-Japan joint policy seminar on the theme of climate change took place at the office of the Delegation of EU in Tokyo on Jan 17. The event brought together European Commissioners, Japanese ministers
Japan fell from the top position in the world as a solar battery producer in 2007, replaced by Europe, a survey by a U.S. industry journal said Saturday.
Top scientists commissioned by Hong Kong's health authorities to probe a recent influenza outbreak here have not found an especially virulent form of virus from children who died after coming down wit
Government Epidemiologists yesterday warned the public who developed symptoms of Leptospirosis (Rat Fever) to immediately consult the MOH or the PHI in the area to get the prophylaxis (injection) as a
China announced details Tuesday of plans to restructure government departments, including the creation of a special ministry to tackle the country's huge environmental problems, such as air and water
Japan Tobacco Inc will increase its own production of frozen foods while cutting back on outsourcing to China, President Hiroshi Kimura said Tuesday. JT will also expand the scope of its food safety inspections, which focus primarily on the manufacturing process at present, to new supervising procedures including the entire process from material processing to warehouse distribution operations, according to the announcement made by Kimura in the wake of food poisoning cases involving dumplings made in China. Among other actions, the company will increase the frequency of inspections from one or two times per year at present, in addition to inspections conducted without advance notice. JT will also require all suppliers to secure ISO 22000 certificates for food safety management systems from the International Organization for Standardization within the next two years and will require the certification as a prerequisite for production of food products on behalf of JT.
Japan will propose to other countries that numerical goals be set for the introduction of energy-saving equipment in each of their industrial sectors as a ratio to overall production equipment. The proposal aimed at cutting greenhouse gases will call for establishing a method to compute the quantities of reduced emissions if the goals set by each nation for each sector, such as steel and electric power generation, are met, government officials said. Adding up the computed quantities of reduced emissions will help each country achieve its overall national cutback targets, the officials said. Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akira Amari will brief his counterparts from the Group of 20 countries on the proposal at a three-day meeting on climate change getting under way March 14 in Chiba. Given that Japanese industry has already made great progress in introducing energy-saving equipment, the Japanese approach would become the global benchmark if the G20 countries adopt the proposal, the officials said. At a meeting in January of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda proposed adding up the quantities of greenhouse gases to be cut in each industrial sector to accomplish overall national cutback targets as a method of combating climate change starting in 2013. The Kyoto Protocol on global warming expires in 2012. The European Union has been calling for obliging various countries to commit to overall national reduction quantities in a post-Kyoto Protocol framework. But the Japanese proposal, which puts emphasis on energy saving, would allow countries to pursue both economic growth and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, Amari said. Against this backdrop, the Japanese proposal would make it easier to secure consent from India and China, two major emitters bent on putting more priority on economic growth. More specifically, the proposal calls for designating energy-saving technology and production methods that are highly efficient in curbing greenhouse gas emissions in key industrial sectors. In the steel industry, for example, some 10 types of equipment will be selected for their ability to recover heat and greenhouse gases from steel plants.
Nippon Oil Corp said Friday it has received a carbon credit of around 4.49 million tons from the United Nations for its oil development project in Vietnam. The certified emission reduction credit, granted for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in the Rang Dong oil field in southern Vietnam, is the largest one-time CER credit to be approved by the Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board, Japan's largest oil distributor said.
Japan will provide $184 million of fresh aid to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Friday. This will bring Tokyo's total contribution to $850 million since the fund was established in 2002 to combat the three diseases that kill 5 million people each year, according to the Foreign Ministry. The fund, created as a result of discussion by leaders at the G-8 summit in Okinawa in 2000, has supported a total of 524 projects in 136 countries.
