By Chisa Fujioka KOBE, Japan, May 24 (Reuters) - Environment ministers from rich countries and other major greenhouse gas emitters gather in western Japan from Saturday for talks on ways to curb emissions, save living species from extinction and cut back on trash. The three-day meeting of the Group of Eight and rapidly growing economies such as China and India comes as pressure grows for both developed and developing countries to tackle climate change, blamed for droughts, rising seas and more intense storms. Delegates meeting in the port city of Kobe will be tasked with building momentum for talks on setting long-term targets to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, an issue to be taken up at a leaders' summit in July. G8 leaders agreed last year in Germany to consider seriously a goal to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a proposal backed by Japan, the European Union and Canada. But developing countries, keen to put economic growth first, have balked at signing up on the goal without the United States doing more to cut emissions and insist rich countries help poorer ones pay for clean technology. "In Kobe, we expect our partners in the G8 to champion the developing countries' cause by explicitly addressing the means of implementation (technology transfer and financing) that will enable and support mitigation and adaptation in developing countries at the scale required," South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk told Reuters. "If they do so, they will be surprised by the goodwill, trust and action that it will unlock," he said in an e-mail response. Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said on Friday that Jakarta planned to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its energy sector by 17 percent by 2025, a move that could boost pressure on rich countries to set bold targets of their own. The United Nation's top climate change official urged the G8 nations to show leadership and set shorter-term goals than 2050 to help guide billions of dollars of investment. NO JACKETS, TIES Many countries favour new targets for 2020 after the first period of the U.N. Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012. "I think the private sector is crying out for an investment perspective," Yvo de Boer told Reuters before heading to Kobe. Eager to show off its green credentials at the meeting, Japan has sent fuel-cell and hybrid cars from its world-class carmakers to pick up delegates from the airport, and has called on participants to bring their own cups and chopsticks to cut trash. The dress code will be "cool biz" -- a Japanese campaign every summer for office workers to take off jackets and ties to minimise air conditioning and reduce emissions. Japan is debating its own long-term reduction target and domestic media have urged the government to also set a mid-term goal to show Tokyo can take the lead on climate change at the G8 and in U.N.-led efforts for a new framework after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. About 190 nations have agreed to negotiate by the end of 2009 a successor treaty to the Kyoto pact, which binds 37 advanced nations to cut emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. But countries are divided on how to shape the new framework and Japan may see limited support this weekend for its proposal for emissions curbs for particular industries, such as steel or cement, that could be added up to a national target. "Some countries may feel frustrated and be burdened" with the the approach, South Korean Environment Minister Lee Maanee said on Friday, echoing suspicions from other developing nations that sector-based targets will throttle their energy-intensive growth. The Kobe meeting will kick off with a session on biodiversity, which will review steps being taken for a U.N. goal set in 2002 to slow the rate of extinctions of living species by 2010. Most experts say that target is nowhere near being met. Those discussions, which coincide with a U.N. conference in Germany, will include ways to combat illegal logging and reduce deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. Ministers will also talk about how to reduce, reuse and recycle waste, addressing the need to use resources productively and ways for developed countries to help transfer recycling technologies to developing countries. (Additional reporting by Linda Sieg in Kobe and Alister Doyle in Oslo; Editing by John Chalmers)
South Africans demonstrate against an outbreak of anti-foreigner violence outside the parliament in Cape Town May 23, 2008. South Africa's security chief on Friday accused rightwingers linked to the former apartheid ...
Climate change
