Follow Japan on climate change policy: Report

With the G8 set to meet in Italy this week, a report from a worldwide consortium of research institutes is arguing that the only policies that will work are those focused on improving energy efficiency and the decarbonisation of power supply.

With the G8 set to meet in Italy this week, a report from a worldwide consortium of research institutes is arguing that the only policies that will work are those focused on improving energy efficiency and the decarbonisation of power supply.

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The report, published by the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and Political Science's Mackinder Programme, argues that this approach will get climate policy back on course and is critical of a model based on emissions targets.

Titled 'How to Get Climate Policy back on Course', the report argues that the recent Japanese 'Mamizu' climate strategy is the world's first to start down this 'real world' course in sharp contrast to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, the UK Climate Change Act and the US Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade legislation.

Professor Steve Rayner, Director of InSIS at the University of Oxford, said, "The world has centuries of experience in decarbonising its energy supply and Japan has led the world in policy-driven improvements in energy efficiency. These are the models to which we ought to be looking."