Statement by Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, Chairman of Keizai Doyukai
On Adoption of “Paris Agreement” at COP21

December 13, 2015

Yoshimitsu Kobayashi
Chairman, Keizai Doyukai

PDF

1. We welcome the adoption of the Paris Agreement (“the Agreement”) at the twenty-first session of Conference of the Parties (COP21) held in Paris under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Agreement will pave the way as a new framework to tackle the climate change issue beyond 2020.
2. Above all, our appreciation goes to the large participation to the new framework. As many as 196 nations and regions, including major greenhouse gas emitters such as China and the US, approved the Agreement of this unprecedented coverage. This move reflects that the threats of global warming are shared worldwide and the participating parties will cooperate to pursue a solution for this issue of global scale.
3. The challenge from now on is how to materialize the contents of the Agreement as effective measures and implement them after the necessary ratification by the participating nations and regions. Meanwhile, an ambitious goal is established so as to achieve a substantial balance between emissions and removals of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century. Thus, it is inevitable that all parties such as each national government, corporations, and people will address even more innovative initiatives under the new framework. In this regard, we, corporate executives, are responsible for actively deploying measures such as the investment increase for energy saving and low-emission facilities, promotion of relevant technologies, products, services, and infrastructures inside/outside Japan, and acceleration of R&D and innovation.

Japanese version