Nations working out a new global climate treaty should use 2005 as the year from which greenhouse gas emissions cuts are measured, rather than the Kyoto Protocol’s 1990 benchmark, according to a senior Japanese official. “Comparisons with 1990 (emissions) levels are extremely unfair. That is the Japanese Government’s stance,” Japanese Vice Trade Minister Takao Kitabata said, according to AFP. “We believe that setting 2005 as the base year would be more satisfactory,” he added. Under the Kyoto Protocol, industrialised countries are obliged to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by a collective 5% below 1990 levels by the year 2012.
