TOYAKO ~ Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced a loan to Indonesia this week of US$300 million in the first batch of aid under Tokyo’s new initiative on fighting climate change.

Fukuda met with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the Japanese northern resort of Toyako on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit.

Fukuda “highly praised” Indonesia’s leadership at a UN-led conference in Bali in December that set a deadline of the end of 2009 to reach a new climate change treaty, a Japanese foreign ministry statement said.

“The prime minister informed the president of Japan’s decision to extend a loan of $300 million, the first batch under the Cool Earth Partnership program,” it said.

The Japanese initiative aims to extend aid worth $10 billion, mostly in low-interest loans, to the developing world to help the world meet a goal of halving emissions blamed for global warming by 2050.

The G8 summit agreed this week that the world should at least halve emissions by 2050 and called for the developing world to follow suit.