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David Miliband
(Archived), LondonThe UK and Japan
Last week Nissan announced that they will produce their LEAF electric car at their plant in Sunderland. This is good for the car industry, and a further sign of how central low-carbon technologies are to future economic growth. It's another great UK-Japan success story and a chance to reflect on the depth and breadth of our work together.
On climate change there was good news last week that Japan is preparing to debate a new bill which will put its ambitious targets - to cut emissions 25% by 2020, and 80% by 2050 - into law.
In Afghanistan, Japan has made a huge financial commitment – pledging to spend $5bn over the next five years, and we worked closely with Japan in the run-up to the London Conference.
And we'll be in close touch as we approach the NPT RevCon in May. Nuclear disarmament and counter proliferation have a high public profile in Japan. With memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and with North Korea not far away, that is no surprise.
David Miliband
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24 March 2010
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Copenhagen – We still have a chance
Following the EU’s legally binding commitments, and alongside the recent Japanese and Korean announcements, this shows that momentum is still building. Countries, both developing and developed, are willing to make commitments to produce an ambitious global deal.
I met this week with South American journalists; the region will be crucial to any deal.
David Miliband
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19 November 2009
20 November 2009
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Japan moves on climate; let's build on it
The decision/announcement by the new Japanese government to increase its emissions reduction commitment threefold (from minus 8 to minus 25 by 2020) is a shot in the arm to the drive for a deal in Copenhagen.
Japan is a massive economy - the world's second largest - and technological driver. As the host of Kyoto it has a special role; the new government is determined to fulfil it
David Miliband
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08 September 2009
08 September 2009
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Fraternity Japanese Style
Congratulations to the Democratic Party of Japan on their striking electoral win. As the world's second biggest economy - and a major investor in the UK - Japan matters a lot to us.
As a concerned international citizen, Japan has also been determinedly internationalist - from development to peace-building. In that context this article in the New York Times by the leader of the DPJ - with its call for an East Asian community learning from the EU - is striking.
David Miliband
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02 September 2009
02 September 2009
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The Doha Round is About More than Trade
Once again the world's trade negotiators are trying for a decisive breakthrough. "Last chance" meetings have come and gone. It is not easy to be optimistic after seven years of negotiation. No multilateral trade negotiation has ever failed. Many commentators now suggest that Doha will be the first.
The cost of failure would be huge. New trade from the deal would be worth tens - even hundreds - of billions of Euros annually. A shot in the arm the global economy desperately needs. At a time of global economic uncertainty Doha would lock in new economic opportunities around the world, for developed and developing countries alike.
If Doha fails these benefits will be lost. But the effects will go wider.
Doha is the first world-wide negotiation to reflect the new global economic order. Brazil, India, China and other emerging economies are equal players in the WTO, as central to its success as the EU, US and Japan. It is right, therefore, as Peter Mandelson has done, to demand that they make a fair, proportionate contribution to a world system from which they greatly benefit.
If Doha slips away, a unique opportunity to strengthen the multilateral, rules-based system will be lost - that would be a big knock to international confidence. If we cannot reach a trade agreement after seven years, can we really expect to succeed next year on a truly global successor to Kyoto? How will we generate a global commitment needed to shift to low carbon growth?
We need international institutions that accommodate the shifts of power and influence in the world and can deal more effectively with both familiar and new challenges. We still need to manage international disputes and resolve conflicts. But we also need collectively to address climate change, global economic shocks, food and energy insecurity and terrorism. The old institutions, created in the aftermath of the second world war, are insufficiently geared to meet these challenges. India, China, Brazil and others must take a proportionate but bigger share of responsibility for world problems in return for a bigger say in world institutions. In the WTO they already have that bigger say. So Doha is, therefore, a test case. It if fails, sceptics will see little chance of improving the UN's ability to respond to post conflict situations. Or reforming the IMF to give better early warning of global economic shocks. Or turning the World Bank into a bank for the environment as well as development.
The EU should lead by example. We should negotiate hard for our interests, but with an eye on the bigger picture. Our grand-children will not blame us for making the small concessions needed to achieve a trade deal. They will blame us, and rightly, if we miss the opportunity in the Doha Round to build a platform for managing the complicated and uncertain world they will inherit.
David Miliband
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28 July 2008
30 July 2008
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Climate Champions
David Miliband
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11 July 2008
12 July 2008
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1000 years since the Genji
It's over 20 years since I was in Kyoto as part of a summer student programme. This is Japan's historic capital (until 1868) and was the home of the Genji Dynasty (1000 years ago). 36 hours here for the G8 Foreign Ministers' involves fleeting glimpses of the city and of Japanese life: a tea ceremony (ever heard of whisked green tea?), extreme courtesy and welcome to Westerners, no chances taken on policing the motorcade, and a city encircled by strikingly green woods.
David Miliband
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30 June 2008
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24 March 2010