JAPAN: Japan's ancient capital and home of the Kyoto Protocol prepares for a "special" Live Earth concert

Japan's ancient capital city is not on the official Live Earth scheduled agenda, but organisers have not ignored the city that gave birth to the Kyoto Protocol aimed at cutting greenhouse gases. On Saturday (July 7), Kyoto will join at least seven other cities around the world, with a "Special Live Earth Concert" set among the 1,211 year-old Toji temple. Tickets to the event, starring popular Japanese bands such as Rip Slyme, Bonnie Pink and Yellow Magic Orchestra, have already sold out. But while the concert will be small in scale, the organisers say they expect to play their part in making it part of the global effort to raise awareness for environmental issues. "Even if its a small thing, we want to participate. All staff members will be bringing in their own food and we will ask the audience to bring home their garbage," Event Chief Daima Asako told Reuters. The Live Earth concerts are planned for Johannesburg, London, New Jersey, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo and are being broadcast in more than 100 countries. Like the other concerts, the Kyoto Special Live Earth event is expected to lead by example to convince people to change their lifestyles in the long term to confront a climate crisis. While some of the tourist to the temple grounds believed it was a good idea, not all were convinced. "I think this concert is a great idea to raise awareness for global warming," said 23-year-old Haruna Ishizuka. "As long as humans are alive on this earth, it will be impossible to prevent global warming," added Kazuto Yoneda, also 23-years-old. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found global carbon dioxide emissions must fall 50 to 85 percent by 2050 to stop the planet from heating more than 2 degrees Celsius. In 1997, representatives from 35 rich nations agreed in Kyoto to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. It expires in 2012 and U.N.-led talks on a replacement pact are expected to start in December. But the United States and Australia refused to ratify Kyoto, claiming the mandatory pollution cuts would threaten economic growth and that excluding large developing nations, such as China and India, from meeting targets did not make sense. Instead, Washington and Canberra created the Asia Pacific Partnership with China, India, South Korea and Japan in 2005 with the aim of tackling climate change through cleaner energy technologies without sacrificing economic development. These nations make up almost half the world's greenhouse gas emissions. South Korea and Japan have also ratified Kyoto.

ITN Source | July 12, 2007

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