The leader of the new Japanese government has promised a major reduction in his country's greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Tokyo is now aiming at a 20 percent cut in the emission of greenhouse glasses compared to 1990 levels, instead of the eight percent pledged by his predecessor, Taro Aso.

Japan is the world's second largest economy and the fifth largest n the emission of greenhouse gases.

On 30 August, prime minister-elect Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan defeated a coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party, which had been in power since 1955. The Democratic Party has a more aggressive platform in the fight against global warming. In December, world leaders will meet to discuss global warming at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

Japanese prime mininister-elect Yukio Hatoyama
World Economic Forum (flickr)