TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will aim to pass a shelved climate bill setting tough emission reduction targets before an annual U.N. meeting in Mexico later this year, the environment minister said on Tuesday.
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)-led government had hoped to enact the bill, which paves the way for a mandatory emissions trading system, by the end of the current session of parliament ending on Wednesday.
But with time having run out for deliberations, the bill will be delayed. The government now plans to resubmit the bill to parliament after an upper house election expected on July 11.
Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa said he wanted to have the bill enacted by a U.N. meeting in Mexico from November 29-December 10, where negotiations will take place for a global agreement on fighting climate change.
"We want to complete the bill by COP 16, so we can show our determination (on climate policy)," Ozawa told a news conference.
Japan is the world's fifth-biggest greenhouse gas emitter and its pledge to cut emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 is government policy and part of the bill.
Ozawa could not rule out the possibility of the bill being watered down if the DPJ failed to win an outright majority in the upper house election, but said the government aimed to enact the bill in its current form.
The DPJ has a comfortable majority in the more powerful lower house, but a weak outcome for the party in the upper house election would force it to rely on help from smaller parties to pass bills smoothly, since the upper chamber can stall bills.
"We think the bill is the best proposal, so we don't plan to make any changes," Ozawa said.
The bill includes a plan for Japan to consider imposing an environment tax from 2011 and an aim to boost renewable energy sources to 10 percent of primary energy supply by 2020.
Ozawa also said he hoped plans for a mandatory emissions trading system would remain on track despite the bill's delay.
The climate bill calls for the government to draft separate legislation to design the trading scheme within a year after the climate bill is enacted.
The government had initially planned to enact an emissions trading bill in the next regular parliamentary session in early 2011, aiming to launch a compulsory carbon market either in 2012 or in 2013.
(Reporting by Chisa Fujioka, Risa Maeda and Chikako Mogi; Editing by David Fogarty)
