Japan says it won't extend carbon reduction pledge

Japan affirmed Thursday it will not extend its legal commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gases after they expire in 2012.

Japan has said it aims to reduce carbon emissions 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, but it will not make that pledge part of a binding agreement unless all other major economies join in an emissions-reduction treaty.

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China, India, Brazil and other big emitters pledged to keep emissions below their normal growth trajectory, but they have refused to make those commitments legally binding. They argue that the wealthy countries caused the problem with 200 years of industrial development, and they cannot accept legal constrictions to their own modernization.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9NT4L301.htm

Edited to add:

"it will not make that pledge part of a binding agreement unless all other major economies join in an emissions-reduction treaty" kind of drives home the problem. Climate change mitigation is an n-player Prisoner's Dilemma game. There is huge resistance to participate unless the free rider problem can be addressed. There is no way to address that issue directly because the significant free riders (aka USA and China) have too much economic power to be coaxed or coerced directly. As a result, unless the real-world economics of large scale low-carbon energy generation change significantly there will be no global action on climate change.

If we were to get such a revolution in renewable electricity a global shift might be possible. I would define such a revolution fairly arbitrarily as one large nation like France getting 25% or more of its electricity from renewables like solar and wind, at a demonstrated cost per kilowatt that's the same as coal. This would reduce the free rider advantage, and might make consensus possible.