Tokyo - Japan is facing serious risk from climate change, and its prime minister should push world leaders at the G8 summit it hosts next week to reduce global emissions within 15 years, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said in a new report Tuesday.

The group's new report, Nippon Changes, says the average temperature has risen by 1 degree in Japan over the past century and extreme weather such as heavy rain has been observed.

"Even Japan's cultural identity is at risk from dangerous change, due to worsening impacts on national icons like the cherry blossom and the Japanese crane, an emblem for longevity and happiness," Naoyuki Yamagishi of WWF Japan said.

Japan has proposed halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but it should demonstrate leadership as the G8 summit host next week in Toyako on Hokkaido island in northern Japan to set a mid-term goal, Yamagishi said.

"Prime Minister (Yasuo) Fukuda must live up to his responsibility as G8 host and show credible leadership by pushing an agreement for global emissions to peak and decline no later than within 10 to 15 years," Yamagishi said.

The non-governmental group urged the G8, the world's seven largest economies and Russia, to take the matter seriously and agree to a mid-term target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent to 40 per cent in industrialized nations by 2020.

Along with the report, the group launched a climate witness programme, which provides a forum for the general public to share their observations of a changing climate and how it affects their livelihoods and businesses. (dpa)