October 3, 2013
Akahata editorial (excerpts)
It is now one month to go until the 19th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP19) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will take place in Warsaw to work out an agreement on a legal framework to tackle global warming.
The international community has already confirmed the need to limit an increase in the average temperature to no more than two degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial Revolution levels in order to prevent an acceleration of global warming. If nothing is done, the world temperature will reportedly increase by a projected 4.8 degrees Celsius at the end of this century.
When Hatoyama Yukio, former Democratic Party politician, was the nation’s prime minister, Japan made a commitment to the world in 2009 to achieving a 25% reduction target by 2020 compared to 1990 levels. Under the Noda (DPJ) government in 2011, Japan withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol. Now, the country headed by Abe Shinzo (Liberal Democratic Party) is considering conducting a zero-base review of that target.
The government has chosen to comply with the demand of the financial community and large corporations opposing mandatory carbon cuts. While discharging large amounts of greenhouse gases, Japan shows little intent to fulfill its responsibility for keeping its promise made to the world in 2009. Even the Environment Ministry now admits to a nosedive of Japan’s influence in international negotiations on global warming.
COP19 held in the capital of Poland in November will discuss a post-2020 framework. Lagging far behind the world effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Japan could act as a brake on international negotiations on climate change.
Successive Japanese governments have centered their global warming countermeasures on the continued use and further promotion of nuclear energy. However, after the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Japan can no longer rely on nuclear power generation as an energy source “contributing” to global warming prevention.
Japan should keep its promise of implementing the 25% reduction target and move toward a low-energy society.
It is now one month to go until the 19th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP19) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will take place in Warsaw to work out an agreement on a legal framework to tackle global warming.
The international community has already confirmed the need to limit an increase in the average temperature to no more than two degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial Revolution levels in order to prevent an acceleration of global warming. If nothing is done, the world temperature will reportedly increase by a projected 4.8 degrees Celsius at the end of this century.
When Hatoyama Yukio, former Democratic Party politician, was the nation’s prime minister, Japan made a commitment to the world in 2009 to achieving a 25% reduction target by 2020 compared to 1990 levels. Under the Noda (DPJ) government in 2011, Japan withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol. Now, the country headed by Abe Shinzo (Liberal Democratic Party) is considering conducting a zero-base review of that target.
The government has chosen to comply with the demand of the financial community and large corporations opposing mandatory carbon cuts. While discharging large amounts of greenhouse gases, Japan shows little intent to fulfill its responsibility for keeping its promise made to the world in 2009. Even the Environment Ministry now admits to a nosedive of Japan’s influence in international negotiations on global warming.
COP19 held in the capital of Poland in November will discuss a post-2020 framework. Lagging far behind the world effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Japan could act as a brake on international negotiations on climate change.
Successive Japanese governments have centered their global warming countermeasures on the continued use and further promotion of nuclear energy. However, after the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Japan can no longer rely on nuclear power generation as an energy source “contributing” to global warming prevention.
Japan should keep its promise of implementing the 25% reduction target and move toward a low-energy society.
