Japan's PM looks beyond Kyoto

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Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has proposed a new international framework that would see worldwide carbon emissions cut in half by 2050.

Prime Minister Abe is getting a little unfair criticism for being short on details of what the final emission targets of his plan will look like. But Abe is right in his diplomatic obfuscation (for now), these are early days and a new international framework will have to take pains to ensure that it is embraced by the United States, who opted not to be part of the Kyoto Protocol. 

To date the only international plan the US has shown any comfort with is the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development on Climate (AP6). And no wonder, unlike the Kyoto Protocol, the AP6 is toothless leaving it up to the member countries to decide on their own non-binding emission reduction targets. 

These are different times though, US industry and governments at the state and municipal level are waking up to the realities of global warming and are noting that it no longer makes political or business sense to be on the wrong side of this issue. Indeed, any new Kyoto-like agreement will take a whole lot of diplomatic pussy-footing to get the US on board.

However,  this time around any bold moves by the US to water down or run away from an agreement will be met with a heck of a lot more opposition than support.

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Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmogBlog.

He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning.

Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks.

Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder.

Prior to DeSmogBlog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health.

In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications.

Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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