Japan, US mull climate summit next year

Japan and the US are planning to hold a summit of major carbon emitters shortly before the G8 summit, scheduled next July in Japan.

Japan and the US are planning to hold a summit of major carbon emitters shortly before the Group of Eight (G8) summit scheduled next July in Japan, Kyodo News said on Monday.

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Tokyo and Washington have started working-level talks on the plan to convene the "Environment and Energy Summit" of G8 leaders and their partners from other carbon emitters ahead of the G8 summit to be held from July 7-9 in northern Japan's Hokkaido, the report said, citing Japanese government sources.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and US President George W Bush have both agreed to this bilateral initiative, which also included holding a US-led meeting, "Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change", around the same time in Japan, Kyodo said.

Climate change will be a major focus in the G8 summit in Hokkaido next July. By holding the climate summit and US-led meeting concurrently, Japan and the United States aim at taking a lead in framing future global goals of greenhouse gas reduction, analysts said.