JCP chair criticizes Aso’s mid-term goal for Japan’s emissions cut

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

JCP chair criticizes Aso’s mid-term goal for Japan’s emissions cut

Prime Minister Aso Taro on June 10 announced that the Japanese government will set a goal of a 15 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions in Japan from the 2005 levels by 2020. It is, however, a cut of only eight percent from the 1990 levels. In international climate talks, 1990 emissions levels are used as the key indice for determining future target numbers.

The Japanese government issued its action program for a period from 2013, after most of the developed countries had issued theirs, and its goal is the most conservative among them. It will soon face severe criticisms from both inside and outside of Japan. Japan is the host nation of the UN climate conference that produced the current framework of cutting emissions in the Kyoto Protocol. Its sincerity to fight global warming is now being questioned.

The government had tabled six options for its emissions cut, and the government choice of an “8 percent cut” is a little more than the fourth highest and is a two point increase from the “six percent cut” which the Kyoto Protocol required Japan to fulfill in the period between 2008 and 2012 from the 1990 levels.

Responding to the criticism that Japan’s goal is inadequate, Aso said that Japan “avoids setting any goal without assurances.” Without requiring the business sector, which is responsible for 80 percent of Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions, to cut emissions, Aso said, “We will ask the public to shoulder certain burdens.”

The government changed to the 2005 level of emissions instead of the 1990 levels as a base apparently in order to make its goal look aggressive.

While the European Union has been aggressively reducing their gas emissions since 1990, Japan, which has actually increased its emissions during the same period, is pretending to address the issue aggressively. Many say that the government should stop using its trick of playing with numbers.

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Asked by reporters on the government announcement of its goal of reduction in emissions, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo stated, “It is too small a goal to be accepted by the international community.”

With such a conservative goal, Japan will not be able to fulfill its international responsibility.

“While most countries are making efforts to cut their emissions from the 1990 levels, only Japan says it will start from the 2005 level. This will accelerate Japan’s isolation in the world,” he added.

“Japan’s declaration of the new goal of an 8 percent cut is tantamount to declaring that it will do nothing by 2020. The only alternative should be for Japan to set the goal of a 30 percent cut by 2020 by firmly upholding the 1990 levels as its basis. The 30 percent cut is what the JCP has proposed,” Shii stressed.

The JCP chair also said, “Japanese business circles are excessively timid about cutting emissions, and the government is too subservient to their demands.”

- Akahata, June 11, 2009