JAPAN: Al Gore says Japanese business can lead climate campaign

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said on Monday (January 15) he would not run in the next presidential race, despite rumours that he might build on the higher profile created by his environmental campaign to do so. Asked whether he had plans to stand in the 2008 election, Gore ruled it out, saying he was involved in "a different kind of campaign." "I should warn you I fear I am beginning to lose objectivity on President Bush but, yes, I am critical of their policies," Gore said, as he spoke with journalists in Tokyo. "The U.S. should be leading the world toward a solution for this climate crisis instead leading in the other direction." The United States withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol, which mandates cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in the 2008-2012 period, saying the agreement would be harmful to the U.S. economy. As host of the 1997 talks that forged the protocol, the Japanese government has urged major polluters, including the United States, China and India, to work harder to combat climate change, most recently during a visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Europe last week. "I'm painfully aware that my own country should join that treaty and should provide leadership the world," Gore said. More than 330 U.S. cities have endorsed the Kyoto Protocol, in a sign of grassroots support for its aims, Gore said. Japan's own emissions of greenhouse gases amounted to 1.36 billion tonnes in the year to March 2006, up 0.6 percent on the previous year and 14.1 percent adrift of its objective to cut emissions to 6 percent below their 1990 levels. The documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" was inspired by a series of multi-media presentations about climate change that Mr. Gore regularly delivers to audiences around the world. He is in Japan to promote the award-winning film, which opens in Japan this week.

ITN Source | January 17, 2007

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