In a bid to push forward slow-moving negotiations to draft the Kyoto Protocol’s successor, the world’s 20 biggest greenhouse gas emitters will hold climate change talks here this weekend.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair is slated to address the so-called G20 dialogue at an opening session on Saturday in Makuhari, Tokyo.

Blair had launched the G20 dialogue – officially called “8 Gleneagles Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development” – in 2005 when he hosted the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.

This weekend’s meeting, the fourth of the dialogue, is the first ministerial meeting tasked with laying the groundwork for the next summit of the G8 wealthy countries in July in northern Japan.

It also comes ahead of negotiations at the end of the month in Bangkok on a successor for the Kyoto Protocol, the landmark treaty on slashing gas emissions blamed for global warming. Kyoto’s obligations run out in 2012.

The G20 meeting will be attended by energy and environment ministers from the Group of Eight - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - and emerging economies, such as Brazil, China and India.

The participating countries together are responsible for about 80 per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide gas emissions.

“The biggest advantage of the G20 meeting is the opportunity for talks at a completely global level compared with those on Kyoto,” said Japanese Trade Minister Akira Amari, who will co-chair the meeting.