Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > Annual Report on the Promotion of Science and Technology 1999 > Part1 Chapter1 Section1 3

Under the Kyoto Protocol, ratified at the Third Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Japan engaged the world that it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 6%.

Achieving such targets depends in large part on the power of science and technology, examples being the development or improvement of new energies and nuclear energy. Therefore, constant efforts in this area are necessary.

Scientific and technological knowledge has played an essential role in actualizing the adoption of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. This includes continuous observations of global climate changes and forecasts based on the scientific analysis of the results of said observations.

Measurements made at the Maunaloa Observatory, in Hawaii, revealed the rising tendency of carbon dioxide concentrations, while the report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) played a major role in the consideration of the Framework Convention on Climate Change and other agreements.

As global environmental problems are inextricably interrelated, the finding of technological options to solve individual global problems requires science and technology to play a major role, one example of which is studying such interrelations to arrive at comprehensive forecasts of the Earth's future.

It is essential to attain a recycling-oriented socioeconomy, where the impact of human activity on the global environment is minimized and sustainable development is possible. This, in turn, requires scientific and technological systems that facilitate such recycling.