Japan will launch an experimental carbon trading scheme for industry this autumn, Yasuo Fukuda, prime minister, said yesterday as he announced a pledge to cut Japanese greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80 per cent by 2050. In a speech laying out Japan's position on climate change ahead of a summit of the Group of Eight leading economies next month, Mr Fukuda, the meeting's host, said the world needed to "sever its reliance on fossil fuels" and "make a decisive turn toward a low-carbon society". He said he would push G8 leaders to unite behind the goal - endorsed by Japan and five other group members, but not the US or Russia - of halving worldwide emissions by 2050. Scientists say such reductions are needed to stop global warming from reaching dangerous levels. "It goes without saying that advanced countries must contribute more than developing countries," Mr Fukuda said in explaining the target of cutting Japan's emissions by 10-30 percentage points more than the proposed global goal. But he stopped short of committing to a more easily monitored interim target such as that adopted by the European Union, which intends to reduce emissions by a fifth from 1990 levels by 2020. He said Japan would set such a target next year, but expected concessions from other countries before settling on a figure. Mr Fukuda said "tough negotiations" were needed to create an "equal and fair" successor to the Kyoto accord on climate change, which expires in 2012. He stressed the need for all "major emitting countries" to participate in a new pact - a reference to the US as well as to China and India, which have also refused to commit to emissions cuts. Mr Fukuda said his government had concluded that it would be "possible" to cut emissions by 14 per cent over 2005 levels by 2020. To do so, he said, Japan would need to raise the portion of its energy needs met through alternative sources such as nuclear, solar and wind power to 50 per cent, from about 40 per cent today, and ensure that half of all new cars ran on "next generation" fuels by the end of the next decade. Mr Fukuda pledged $1.2bn in new money to a fund created by Japan, the US and the UK to help poor countries improve their energy efficiency, and said he would examine other domestic measures such as "greening" the tax system to support environmental technologies and introducing daylight savings time. He said the carbon trading scheme would be voluntary at first, unlike Europe's system which imposes mandatory caps, but suggested it could be expanded to a "full-fledged" system if it succeeded. He did not say which industries would be targeted. "We don't want a situation where, a few years from now, we suddenly realise that every other country is doing it, so we rush to implement [mandatory carbon trading] and make mistakes because we have no experience," he said. "If other countries are doing it, Japan has to do it too."