TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday he would pledge a 26 percent cut in the country's greenhouse gas emissions, ahead of a global summit on climate change this year.
Abe also promised to take a "leading role" in the international drive to reduce pollutants blamed for global warming.
"This is an ambitious target which is no way inferior to other countries internationally," Abe said in a climate change cabinet meeting Tuesday.
The plan "reflects the Abe administration's goals of lowering reliance on nuclear power as much as possible, with efforts in energy saving and the introduction of renewable energy to the maximum extent possible," he said.
The pledge, which uses 2013 as the base year, has been dubbed unambitious by environmental groups since it was first proposed in early May.
Tokyo-based campaigning group Kiko Network has pointed out that 26 percent cut from 2013 works out at just 17 percent cut from 1990 levels.
"I will take a leadership role towards realisation of a fair and effective framework in COP21, explaining Japan's position on the emission target at the Group of Seven (G-7) summit" in Germany opening this weekend, Abe said.
The November 30 to December 11 COP21 conference in Paris faces the difficult task of reaching consensus among the 196 parties involved.
At the core of the deal would be a roster of national pledges for reducing greenhouse gas emissions -- the invisible pollution from fossil fuels that drives climate-damaging temperature rise.
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