EU faces battle to keep Canada and Japan on the ‘green’ side

The EU is facing a tough diplomatic challenge to persuade Canada and Japan to start talks this year on a new climate change regime that will replace the Kyoto Protocol after 2012.

The Union is struggling to convince the two countries to sign up to ambitious plans to combat global warming, ahead of a meeting of the world’s eight most industrialised countries in Germany on 6-8 June.

Diplomats hope that deals with Japan and Canada would put pressure on the US at the G8 meeting to commit itself to market-based mechanisms for tackling climate change as well as binding emissions targets, which the US has so far opposed.

The EU now wants the two nations - which are seen as close allies in tackling climate change - to commit themselves to starting talks at a UN conference in Bali in 3-14 December.

The Kyoto Protocol - which aims to cut global carbon emissions - will expire in 2012 after a period of commitments that begins next year.

At a summit on 5 June, EU leaders will ask their Japanese counterparts to commit themselves to starting talks at Bali on a successor agreement to Kyoto and to conclude negotiations by 2009.

According to a draft summit statement, proposed by the EU, the two sides would also push for developed countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 30% by 2020 and 60-80% by the middle of this century, down from 1990 levels.

But Japanese diplomats said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may not be willing to sign up to such concrete proposals unless China, India and the US pledge to take part in a post-Kyoto deal.

"Some [within the Japanese government] think it is premature to start talks in Bali," said Hidehiro Muramatsu, a senior diplomat at the Japanese mission to the EU.

"Japanese industry is against any emission taxes or carbon pricing while major emitters are not participating fully. With China, India, the United States and Australia we have not yet reached a common point," added Muramatsu.

Japan could play a crucial role in guiding talks as it takes up the leadership of the G8 in 2008.

With Canada, too, the EU is struggling to agree common ground.

The EU wants Canada to toughen its stance on tackling climate change, amid concerns that Ottawa is back-tracking on previous commitments.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will travel to Berlin for an EU-Canada summit on 4 June where he will face calls for Canada to fulfil its Kyoto targets and back plans to create a post-Kyoto agreement.

Harper has been criticised by environmental groups for claiming that Canada cannot meet its emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol.

In a 2002 speech, Harper said: "As economic policy, the Kyoto accord is a disaster. As environmental policy, it is a fraud." He has since questioned whether Canadians could stop using their cars or heating homes in winter in order to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

The EU is facing a tough diplomatic challenge to persuade Canada and Japan to start talks this year on a new climate change regime that will replace the Kyoto Protocol after 2012.