Japan Press Weekly

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2013 December 25 - 2014 January 7 [ENVIRONMENT]

Reduce energy and ‘develop’ society: environment researcher

If greenhouse gases continue to be emitted at current rates, climate change will reach a dangerous level in 30 years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns in its latest report released in September. Akahata carried an interview with Nishioka Shuzo, who researches ways to achieve a “low-carbon society” at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies. The excerpts of the interview are as follows:

For more than 10,000 years, human beings having established and expanded their civilizations have lived under relatively stable weather. Now, “climate change” poses a serious problem that could turn this natural environment into a non-sustainable condition.

The latest IPCC report suggests that in order to keep the rise in temperature within two degrees Celsius, the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere should be no more than 800 billion tons. The present amount of accumulated CO2 is 530 billion tons, and every year we add another 10 billion tons. In other words, we will reach the earth’s carrying capacity for CO2 emissions in 30 years.

The need to change from the present fossil energy-dependent society is therefore urgent.

Roughly speaking, a “low-carbon society” is where energy-saving efforts successfully halve our energy demand and for energy to be provided by renewable energy sources.

In order to achieve this, it is essential to review the whole system of industries and cities. For instance, the amount of CO2 emission per person will be ten times less if the switch is made from using private cars to taking public transportation.

Some argue that there can be no economic growth without depending on energy, but such an idea has become outdated. Now is the time for us to use our wisdom to achieve “development” while reducing energy consumption.

Nuclear power plants were claimed to be a key to tackle global warming because they do not produce CO2 when generating power. However, being incapable of adjusting output, nuclear reactors in Japan have operated together with coal-fired thermal power stations, which create carbon dioxide. As a result, CO2 emissions increased as nuclear power reactors increased.

Not only that, Japan has depended too much on nuclear energy and been very inactive in promoting renewable energy sources. In Germany, renewable energy technologies now provide about 20% of total power generation. While having a potential for achieving the same rate of use, renewable energy sources in Japan currently produce only 1% of the nation’s power generation (excluding large hydroelectric power plants).

If nuclear power plants are reactivated and a nuclear accident occurs again, Japan’s plan for a low-carbon society would again be delayed. Such a situation must be avoided.