25–40% of the 1990 levels by 2020. It was decided that by 2009, the same year when the AWGLCA presents the outcomes of its work, the AWG-KP should also come up with new emissions reduction targets for the Annex I countries for 2013 and beyond.

At the 3rd Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, a decision was made on an operating system for managing the “Adaptation Fund,” including the establishment of the Executive Board of the Adaptation Fund. The Adaptation Fund is to be financed with 2% of the proceeds from clean development mechanism (CDM) projects. It was set up to support adaptation projects (measures to avert/reduce the unavoidable impacts of global warming) in developing countries.

These agreements aimed at seeking maximum protection from the impacts of global warming through the creation of an effective framework that will enable all countries with different positions and opinions to participate. Besides developed countries, such as Japan and the EU, that have already committed to emissions reduction under the Kyoto Protocol, the framework will include the United States, the biggest emitter that has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol; China and India that have seen a drastic increase in emissions in recent years; small island states that are concerned about the submersion of their countries under water; and African countries that are suffering from drought. As science has shed light on the fact that it will not be possible to arrest the progression of global warming without the developing countries also making effort to reduce emissions, the developing countries have started to take a more cooperative stance in accord with the UNFCCC principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities” and under the condition of receiving assistance from developed countries. In this way, a new venue has become available for parties to the UNFCCC to discuss the emissions reduction target for 2013 and beyond and the means for achieving it. It can be said that global warming policies and measures worldwide have entered a new stage.

# Section 2 The World Has Reached the Turning Point and the Days Ahead

## 1 The Road to the Bali Action Plan

## (1) Actions Taken by the International Community in Tackling Global Warming Issues

## A United Nations Conference on the Human Environment

The international community first took up discussion of environmental issues in 1972, at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (hereinafter referred to as “Stockholm Conference”).

The conference was called for by Sweden, a developed country that had started to notice damages from pollutants such as acid rain, caused by soot and smoke emitted from coal-fired power plants in far-away Western European countries. At the time, similar problems were also causing serious social issues in other developed countries. Since then, developed countries have taken note of the destruction of nature by pollution from industrialization and development, and their serious impacts on the global environment. On the other hand, developing countries also came to realize that underdevelopment and poverty were the most challenging issues to the human environment and that development of their countries offered the solution. This stance put the developing countries and the developed countries in direct opposition to each other. While the Stockholm Conference made the international community realize for the first time that environmental problems are indeed international problems, it also illustrated a deep divide in the handling of global environmental problems due to the income gap between the northern and southern hemispheres.

At that time in society, there was the idea that all elements on “Spacecraft Earth” (the earth was called as such then), including populations and resources, were interrelated in a complex and subtle way as one entity and that all countries should cooperate to protect it. It was with this kind of idea that the Declaration of the United Nations Conference on Human Environment (Stockholm Declaration) and the Action Plan for the Human Environment were adopted. These statements, however, included the widely divided assertions made by the developed and developing countries.

## B Concept of “Sustainable Development”

The concept of “sustainable development,” advocated by the Brundtland Commission in its final report “Our Common Future” in 1987, was an answer given to provide a framework that integrates environmental policies and development strategies. The concept of “development