Cabinet ministers compiled Thursday a draft climate bill for official adoption on Friday, which stipulates Japan 's goal of slashing its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020 and measures to realize the target, such as emissions trading scheme, carbon tax and incentives to boost renewable energies, Kyodo News reported.

The ministers overcame differences over the architecture of the envisioned emissions trading mechanism, and the promotion of nuclear power generation as a step to implement the emissions-cut goal.

The draft bill on basic policies to curb global warming stipulates the 25%emissions-cut target is premised on an agreement on ambitious targets by all the major economies and the establishment of a fair and effective international framework to tackle climate change.

It also includes a longer-term goal of cutting emissions by 80% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels.

In a meeting of the Cabinet ministers, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told them that the country will face "the moment of truth from now on" to kick-start measures to slash heat-trapping gas emissions.

As for the design of the emissions trading scheme, the ministers agreed on a compromise deal to basically adopt the principle of setting an overall ceiling for emissions to ensure their reduction, but also to "consider" allowing for setting an emissions ceiling per unit of production for some industries.

Representatives of businesses such as steelmakers and power companies, labor unions and the industry ministry had called for the introduction of ceiling based on units of production due to concerns about negative impacts on the economy.

But the approach would theoretically allow emissions to increase as long as production volumes grow, and conservation groups as well as the environment and foreign ministries had advocated the overall cap to ensure emissions cuts.

Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa told reporters that the ministers agreed on keeping two options open "in view of achieving both the environment protection and economic growth."

"We created the outline of the emissions trading mechanism that would remove obstacles to economic growth but also control the overall carbon dioxide emissions," Ozawa said. "We will draft another bill involving specific details about the emissions trading scheme in one year."

The envisioned legislation also says Japan will promote nuclear power generation to implement the emissions-cut goal, despite reluctance on the part of the Social Democratic Party, one of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's two coalition partners.

Ozawa said the SDP finally gave in to the majority's view among the ministers that the nation should rely on nuclear power to trim emissions.

The draft bill also includes steps to boost renewable energy, setting a target of increasing the ratio of primary energy supply from such sources to 10% by 2020. To that end, the government will adopt a mechanism to require utility firms to buy all the electricity generated with renewable energy at fixed prices.

Moreover, the envisioned legislation calls for introducing a carbon tax in fiscal 2011.

Oxfam International immediately released its criticism of the draft climate bill for "watering down the country's responsibility to contribute to global efforts to tackle climate change."

Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam International's executive director who is on a Tokyo visit to meet with Japanese government officials, said the Japanese Cabinet "failed to provide international leadership, which was desperately needed to build trust between developed and developing countries," according to a press release.

Hobbs criticized the draft bill for allowing an approach that could lead to an increase in industries' overall emissions and for making the 25% emissions-cut goal conditional.

He urged the Japanese parliament to review the legislation "in light of the country's global responsibility to mitigate climate change, whose impacts are already hitting the poorest people and countries hardest."

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