China is expected to express support for Japan's sector-by-sector approach to setting goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Friday. The announcement, to be made in a joint statement on environmental issues Tokyo and Beijing are working on, is likely to follow the bilateral summit Wednesday between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Tokyo.

The European Commission will push members of the Group of Eight industrialized countries to equal the European Union's commitment to fighting global warming when the G8 summit opens in July in the hot-spring resort of Toyako, Hokkaido, a senior EC official said. Joao Vale de Almeida Claiming the EU has set an ambitious goal on climate change, Joao Vale de Almeida, a G8 summit "sherpa," or personal representative of the EC president, said he will call on other members to take their share of responsibility.

The United States' agenda for the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, emphasizes health and development issues, making sure previous agreements are carried out in a publicly accountable way and guaranteeing that developing nations are part of a post-Kyoto Protocol treaty, said the top U.S. official coordinating Washington's role at the G8.

Japan and the European Union agreed Wednesday to step up cooperation in the fight against global warming, calling for a "highly ambitious and binding international approach" to cut greenhouse gas emissions. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, who now serves as president-in-office of the European Council, met Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda at his official residence in Tokyo in an annual meeting between top EU and Japanese leaders.

Hokkaido Gov. Harumi Takahashi has issued an environmental appeal ahead of July's Group of Eight summit in her prefecture, calling on each of Hokkaido's 5.6 million residents to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from homes by 10 percent, or 1.1 kg a day, from current levels. The targeted figure is bigger than the 1-kg-a-day proposal by the Environment Ministry. Takahashi said at a symposium in Sapporo on Monday she expects the appeal to become a regional model used the world over for environmental preservation.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed skepticism over a U.S. initiative to halt the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, during a meeting in Hanover on Sunday with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japanese officials said. All smiles: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe chat during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Hanover industrial fair on Sunday. AP

Full-fledged reinforcement of the international nuclear nonproliferation framework is of vital importance for facilitating peaceful use of nuclear power and thereby for addressing the pressing global challenges of energy supply and global warming, according to a private policy study group. To attain this goal, all nations, regardless of whether they have nuclear capability, must work on nonproliferation initiatives, such as stepped-up disarmament efforts and reinforcement of nuclear site inspections, according to the Study Group on Nuclear Nonproliferation.

Cigarette vending machines that accept driver's licenses for age verification will be available in addition to those that read new smart cards known as taspo, sources said Sunday. The Finance Ministry is planning the move because the taspo card has drawn criticism, probably due to the procedures required to obtain the integrated circuit card, the sources said.

Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita on Friday criticized U.S. President George W. Bush's recently unveiled plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions, saying it fell "far short" of expectations. "Frankly, I want the United States to address the issue of global warming in a more proactive fashion," the minister said at a news conference. Kamoshita made no mention of when Japan will announce its own proposal. The minister said he "welcomes" Washington's move to set a specific date by which to lower its emissions, but stressed that the U.S. should "aim even higher."

Following a one-day meeting in Tokyo, the business federation chiefs issued a joint statement urging the G8 nations to come up with measures that will encourage developing countries to participate in the framework to succeed Kyoto. "We hope there will be a forward-looking agreement on such points," said Fujio Mitarai, chief of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) and chairman and CEO of Canon Inc. Mitarai also said the business chiefs briefly discussed the sectoral approach Japan proposed that has so far only received mixed reactions.