Author: Stephen Howes

The three main propositions around which the current global climate change negotiations are structured were agreed at the Bali Conference in December 2007. The first is that developed countries should commit to binding emission reduction targets. The second is that developing countries should adopt policies and measures to reduce emissions below what they would otherwise have been. The third is that developed countries should support developing ones, principally by the supply of finance, to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.

This is a different framework to that of the Kyoto Protocol, which placed obligations only on developed countries. Under the Bali Roadmap, everyone acts, but different metrics are used to measure obligations in developed and developing countries – targets for developed countries, policies for developing countries.

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Author: Tobias Harris

Despite a truly historic victory by the DPJ — the first time since the LDP was created that it has been defeated in a general election (and oh how it was defeated!) — there is remarkably little to say.

After all, there were no surprises. The results were exactly as Japan’s media organizations predicted. The DPJ finished within a range of ±20 seats from 300, the LDP flirted with 100 seats but will not end up closer to 120 seats, giving it slightly more than the DPJ received in 2005. The Japanese public made very clear during the months leading up to the general election that it was time for the LDP to go — and in the end, the voters booted the LDP from power without flinching. The bums have been thrown out, at last.

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