7/ 4兩岸直航

NHK

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/k10015693631000.html

週末ごとに中国と台湾を結ぶ初めての直行チャーター便が４日から運航を始め、第１陣となる中国からの大勢の観光客が台湾に到着し、台湾側では、今後、経済成長著しい中国大陸から多くの観光客を呼び込んで、景気の回復に弾みをつけたいと期待しています。

中国と台湾を結ぶ直行チャーター便は、これまで、旧正月など特別な時期にだけ運航され、利用できるのは台湾の人に限られていましたが、今回から、中国からの観光客や外国人にも解禁されました。初日の４日は、双方の航空会社のあわせて３６便が運航されることになっており、このうち台北市内の空港には、４日午前、中国沿海部のアモイからの便が到着し、歓迎式典が行われました。中国から訪れた乗客は「初めて台湾に来たときは香港経由で２時間以上かかったので、とても便利です」とか、「ずっと台湾に来たかったので、いろいろなところを見てみたいです」などと話していました。台湾では、ことし５月に中国との協調路線を掲げる馬英九政権が発足したのをきっかけに、中台間の交流拡大の動きが活発化しています。週末の直行チャーター便が実現したことで、今後、人の往来が飛躍的に伸びるものとみられ、台湾側では、経済成長著しい中国大陸から多くの観光客を呼び込んで、景気の回復に弾みをつけたいと期待しています。

CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/07/04/taiwan.china/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- The first regular charter flights between China's mainland and Taiwan began Friday in a sign of warming relations between Beijing and Taipei.

The pilot of the plane with the first group of mainland China tourists waves at the Taipei Airport Friday.

The flight took off at 6: 31 a .m. from Guangzhou , capital of Guangdong Province in southern China , the state-run Xinhua news agency reported, and it arrived in Taiwan at 8:10 am. after a 1,124-km (700-mile) journey.

Previously, the only chartered flights across the 100-mile Taiwan Strait took place during major holidays. They will now run on weekends from Friday through Monday.

About 760 mainland Chinese plan to make the trip this weekend, but that number is expected to increase to 3,000 by mid-July.

The charter service eventually could lead to regular commercial service. Watch why this is significant »

Chinese and Taiwanese officials agreed last month to set up permanent offices in each other's territories, in the first formal talks between the two sides in almost a decade. The Beijing talks also resulted in the agreement for weekend charter flights.

Cross-straits talks between the two delegations began in 1993, a year after China and Taiwan informally agreed that the two sides belonged to "one China ." They did not, however, specify what that meant, and both sides were free to use differing interpretations.

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After that, the dialogue was delayed for five years over cross-strait tensions.

A second meeting in 1998 was held in Shanghai , but Beijing canceled a 1999 meeting when then-Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui proposed that Taiwan and China treat each other as separate states.

Taiwan's new president, Ma Ying-jeou, has rejected the push for independence.

Although Ma opposes unification with China , he campaigned on promises of seeking closer ties to the mainland, particularly seeking for Taiwan some of the benefits of China 's robust economy.

Taiwan separated from China after the communists victory in the Chinese civil war in 1949 -- about 2 million Nationalists Chinese fled to Taiwan and set up a government there.

Beijing has always considered it a part of China and has threatened to go to war should Taiwan declare formal independence.

北海道洞爺湖首腦會議(可參考專屬網站http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/summit/)

NHK

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/t10015703713000.html

今月７日に開幕する北海道洞爺湖サミットの際に開かれる温室効果ガスの主要排出国の会合でまとまる「首脳宣言案」が判明し、地球温暖化に歯止めをかけるため先進各国が国ごとに中期的な削減目標を掲げる一方、中国などの新興国も今後、排出量を抑えることで合意する見通しとなりました。

この会合はサミットの最終日となる今月９日に開かれるもので、温室効果ガスの主要な排出国であるＧ８のほか中国やインドなど経済成長著しい新興国を加えたあわせて１６か国の首脳が初めて一堂に会し、地球温暖化対策を議論します。この会合の「首脳宣言案」によりますと、まず先進国は温室効果ガスの増加に歯止めをかけるため西暦２０３０年ごろをめどにした中期の削減目標を国別に掲げるとしています。また、経済成長にともなって温室効果ガスの排出が急増している中国やインドなどの新興国も今後は排出量を抑える取り組みを進めるとしています。一方、２０５０年までに温室効果ガスの排出量を半減するという長期の削減目標については「来年末の合意をめざした国連交渉を通じて各国が受け入れることが望ましい」としています。首脳宣言案では、今は削減義務を一切負っていないアメリカのほか中国やインドなどの新興国も、中長期的に温室効果ガスの削減を進める姿勢を明確にしていますが具体的な数値目標や達成期限は示されず、今後に課題を残す形となっています。

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/t10015703733000.html

発展途上国を中心に食糧高騰の問題が深刻化していることを受けて北海道洞爺湖サミットで取りまとめられる食糧問題の「特別宣言案」の全容が判明し、穀物高騰の一因とされる輸出規制の自粛や発展途上国での農作物の生産向上に向けた技術支援などの対策が盛り込まれることが固まりました。

宣言案では、まず「世界の食料の安全保障を脅かす急激な食糧価格の高騰を深く憂慮し、飢えなどに苦しむ国々を助けるために追加的な措置をとる」としています。具体的には短期的な対策として、農作物の生産国に対し穀物高騰の一因とされる輸出規制を自粛するよう求めることや、食糧の備蓄に余裕のある国はその一部を深刻な飢えに苦しむ発展途上国の援助に充てるべきだとしています。また中長期的な対策としては、途上国の食糧生産の拡大につながる技術協力やかんがい施設などのインフラ整備を支援するほか、バイオ燃料が食糧不足を招いているという指摘を踏まえ「稲わら」などを原料とする新たなバイオ燃料の開発を進めるとしています。サミットでは一連の対策を盛り込んだ食糧問題に関する「特別宣言」を首脳宣言とは別に取りまとめることにしており、穀物価格の高騰で発展途上国を中心に影響が深刻化している食糧問題の改善に向け、Ｇ８・主要８か国として明確なメッセージを出す方針です。

CNN

The world in their hands: What can come from the G8 summit?

       Story Highlights

       G8 leaders to meet in Toyako , Japan July 7-8 to discuss climate change

       IPCC author, Greenpeace director and policy advisor look towards the summit

       Each tell CNN what they would say to G8 leaders given the chance

(CNN) -- From July 7 to 9, the small town of Toyako in Japan will become the center of the world when the leaders of the G8 countries meet for their annual summit.

President Bush and Prime Minister Brown will meet with heads of the other G8 countries. Can they come to agreement?

1 of 2

With record oil prices and food crises affecting every country across the world, top of the agenda will be energy, the environment and climate change.

Expected to be part of the discussions is how to move beyond the emissions targets created by the UN's Kyoto Protocol, but will actually come from the supposedly frank and open discussions?

We canvassed the opinions of some of the world leaders working at the sharp end of combating climate change and asked them what they thought would come from the summit and just what they would say to the leaders themselves if they had the chance.

The activist: Von Hernandez, Director, Greenpeace Southeast Asia

One of the leading environmental activist in Asia, he campaigned, successfully, to ban waste incineration, an enormous source of toxic pollution, in the Philippines . Continuing the lobby governments and inspire grassroots activism, he talked to CNN from Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior.

CNN: What do you expect from the G8 summit?

Hernandez: "After the UN meeting in Bali last year people are expecting that governments will take the action needed and that leadership should be coming from G8 countries.

But it seems like our leaders have gone back to sleep again. In respect to the most industrialized nations, they are still dilly-dallying, particularly in the U.S. government that has refusing to make solid commitments to reduce their commitments reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent by 1990 levels by 2050.

There is a great demand that the G8 leaders show real leadership, particularly Japan which is hosting the meeting. The recent mood by the Japanese government not to make mid-term or long term commitments is very worrying.

What they're trying to do is get the major developing economies involved before making a commitment, which is a bit unfair because the historical responsibility rests on the developed countries first and foremost.

They have to show that political will and other countries will follow. I think they will also be discussing the food crisis that is also tied to climate change, the rising price on oil and speculation over biofuels. Already oil prices are creating a debate in South East Asia on renewables.

Unfortunately in terms of G8 what they propose will be nuclear instead. G8 has to commit to major investment to make sure renewable resources are tapped and developing countries are weaned off their reliance on fossil fuels. I think the resources are there, especially in G8 countries to make that energy revolution.

CNN: What would you say to the G8 leaders?

Hernandez: "Now is the time to demonstrate real leadership. The kind of leadership that you have demonstrated so far has been uninspiring and motivated by greed. It's now time to show leadership that you can change the world."

The environmental policy advisor: Tom Burke

Tom Burke is a British environmental policy advisor to Rio Tinto plc, one of the world's largest mining and resource companies. He is also the founding director of E 3G , a not for profit organization that works to promote sustainable development. As well as chairing numerous environmental forums, he was formerly the executive director of Friends of the Earth.

CNN: What do you expect from the G8 summit?

Burke: Unless the developing world see the developed world as being serious about climate change then it's going to be very hard to get agreements in Copenhagen [UN climate change conference in 2009] and right now China, India and other countries look at what we're doing rather than what we're saying and they quite correctly come to the conclusion that we're not serious.

The way we indicated that we're serious is by putting real money into the carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration projects.

That would help create the political conditions under which agreement can be met in Copenhagen . My personal view is that I don't think the political conditions are really there, so what you'll get in Toyako is just more words. You won't get a decision, just words they can all live with and sound as if something serious is going to happen, but it won't amount to a real political bargain which is what ought to come out of the G8.

The leaders should all go home and put some real money in CCS. It just needs the current leaders to recognize that this is a problem that threatens the prosperity and security of every single citizen in their countries, and they're not doing very much about it yet. There's been a build up from the G8 energy ministers meeting [in early June] that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an imperative and not an option. Coal is going to get burnt and if that coal gets burnt without carbon capture and storage then you accelerate climate change beyond the bounds of reason.

We've got to stop dithering on CCS and recognize it's an imperative and what we really need to do is get the 30 or so demonstration project around the world up and running right away.

That's the kind of thing you really need to do, and that means spending money. That's not going to be done by carbon prices or some sort of carbon mechanism, it's only going to be done if governments decide to spend the money to accelerate the demonstration projects right away.

CNN: What would you say to the G8 leaders?

Burke: The short version is: "Stop stealing our kids' future."

They really do need to get real about what we have got to do to avoid catastrophic climate change -- it's too late to avoid dangerous climate change -- and that means spending massive amounts of money on transforming the energy infrastructure If they want to know what they can do to make a difference right now, go home and spend some money on carbon capture and storage.

The IPCC author: Dr Atiq Rahman

Awarded the 2008 UN Champion of the Earth award for Asia and the Pacific for his work on sustainable development. He is also executive Director of the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies and one of the principal authors of the IPCC report.

CNN: What do you expect from the G8 summit?

Rahman: The world's biggest crisis at the moment is the food crisis. This is the beginning of a major crisis that will have upheaval throughout the world and there are links to the environmental impacts. Climate change is undoubtedly one of the biggest threats that the world faces today.

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G8 are the people who are primarily responsible and G8 associates, the rich countries, are legally responsible for the climate change of the last 200 years. Of course the emerging nations will be mega producers of greenhouse gases, but in terms of per capita use, they won't reach anywhere near where the rich countries have reached.

Food security issues and energy security issues immediately impinge on water security and that is a cocktail which can make social issues rage quite strongly, and when that happens political security doesn't look good.

Japan has to take responsibility that whatever the remnants of the Kyoto protocol are still there will have a chance of survival. There is life after Bali , but it's a question of how much life can you breathe into a dying patient.

I'm not a fan of the G8, it's a club of the rich, and I think they can only do so much. Their whole context isn't about saving the planet, it's a context of satisfying a very narrow economic agenda of the ruling elites. Things have moved on since the IPCC which because of its nature was conservative in it's report.

The sense of urgency that should reflect the current state of climate change is not being seen. They will at the most recognize IPCC, but they won't go beyond that.

CNN: What would you say to the G8 leaders?

Rahman: Signals are loud and clear and the destabilization of society across the world is almost knocking, the markets are not behaving as they are expected. The whole biodiesel issue may be a relatively small one but has created signs where food vs. petrol does not look like a very humane way of approaching global political issues, and the poor will be the worst sufferers of all.

But it won't just affect poor countries, and social destabilization across the globe is not in the interest of anyone.

I'm sorry it's not a pretty picture, but they have to give some signals that the world can be a better place. If they can't do that and people have nothing to hold on to then that discontent might be out of the hands of even the mightiest.