Tokyo, Aug 31 (AP) US climate envoy John Kerry was in Tokyo on Tuesday to discuss efforts to fight climate change with top Japanese officials ahead of a United Nations conference in November.

Kerry was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, as well as Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshi Kajiyama.

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Kerry arrived in Japan on Monday and will fly out on Tuesday evening to China for more climate talks — his second trip to the country under President Joe Biden's administration.

In his talks with Koizumi, Kerry was expected to discuss decarbonisation efforts and cooperation between the two countries ahead of the U.N. climate conference, known as COP26, to be held in Glasgow in the first half of November.

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During a visit to London last month, Kerry called on global leaders to work together and accelerate actions needed to curb rising temperatures to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. He urged China to join the U.S. in urgently cutting carbon emissions.

China is the world's top carbon emitter, followed by the United States. Japan is fifth.

Many countries have pledged to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050. Japan has promised to strive to reduce its emissions by 46 per cent from 2012 levels, up from an earlier target of 26 per cent, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. China has also set a goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2060.

Suga has said Japan will try to push the reduction as high as 50 per cent to be in line with the European Union.

In order to achieve that target, Japan's Environment Ministry is seeking a significant budget increase to promote renewable energy and decarbonising programmes. The Trade and Industry Ministry plans to use large subsidies to promote electric vehicles and wind power generation, according to a draft budget proposal for 2022.

The Trade and Industry Ministry, in its draft basic energy plan released in July, said the share of renewables should be raised to 36-38 per cent of the power supply in 2030 from the current target of 22-24 per cent.

The plan maintains the current 20-22 per cent target for nuclear energy as officials remain undecided over what to do with the nuclear industry that has struggled since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The plan cuts the use of fossil fuel from 56 per cent to 41 per cent.

During his Sept. 1-3 China visit, Kerry is expected to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)