emissions

Today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda introduced the "Cool Earth 50" initiative, aimed at cutting global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050. Fukuda, who will host the G8 summit in July, also said Japan would continue to cut its emissions beyond the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, despite, last month at U.N. talks in Bali, siding with the U.S. in rejecting a European Union plan to set an emissions cut target beyond 2012.

Addressing the 2,500+ business and political leaders at the WEF, Fukuda insisted "there is no time to lose in addressing climate change, [Japan] will extend the hand of assistance to developing countries suffering severe adverse impacts as a result of climate change." That hand will come in the form of the