Japan vows big climate change cut

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Japan's next leader has promised a big cut in greenhouse gas emissions, saying he will aim for a 25 per cent reduction by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
Democratic Party leader Yukio Hatoyama is due to take over as prime minister on 16 September, after a resounding election victory in August.
His predecessor, Taro Aso, had pledged cuts of only 8 per cent.
Mr Hatoyama said the plan was dependent on other nations agreeing targets at December's climate talks in Copenhagen.
But Monday's announcement has already sparked resistance from Japanese business groups, and parts of the automotive industry are expected to lobby against the targets.
The BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo says Japanese industry believes the country should focus on emerging properly from the recession it has just been through, rather than on emissions.
Analysts say the plan, unveiled at a climate change symposium in Tokyo, is more ambitious than those of many other industrialised nations.
It won praise from the climate change chief of the UN, which is recommending developed countries commit to a 25-40 per cent reduction by 2020.
"With such a target, Japan will take on the leadership role that industrialised countries have agreed to take in climate change abatement," Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, told the Tokyo forum.
Japan is the world's second-largest economy and fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, which are a major contributor to global warming. — BBC