Japan Press Weekly

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2016 August 31 - September 6 TOP3 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Ratification of ‘Paris Agreement’ by US and China highlights Japan’s reluctance to tackle climate change

The world’s worst CO2 emitters, the United States and China, announced their ratification of the Paris Agreement at the 2016 G20 Summit meeting held on September 4 and 5 in Hangzhou in China. Global efforts to prevent catastrophic climate change have entered a new phase. However, the Abe government’s extraordinary stance which sticks to nuclear power generation and increased fossil fuel use with reluctance to tackle climate change has come under the international spotlight.

The Paris Agreement was adopted at the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties, or COP21, to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Paris at the end of 2015 as a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol under which only industrialized nations were obligated to put forward their reduction targets. The Paris Agreement calls not only on industrialized countries but also on developing countries to set up their targets for greenhouse gas reductions in order to keep the global temperature rise within 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrialization level.

The Agreement will come into effect with the ratification by 55 nations representing at least 55% of global emissions. In this context, ratification by the U.S. and China was essential as the two nations together are responsible for 40% of global emissions.

“The world top 2 GHG emitters’ ratification will contribute to pressing Japan and other countries to ratify the climate change treaty,” said Tohoku University Professor of environmental science Asuka Jusen.

The Paris Agreement requires signatory nations to raise their GHG reduction target every five years. The need is for signatories, including the U.S. and China, to follow this requirement and take effective steps to achieve their goals.

Unfortunately, the Abe government is going against the world move to combat global warming.

In 2009, the Democratic Party-led government in a UN meeting promised that Japan will cut its GHG emissions by 25% by 2020 from the 1990 level. However, after Prime Minister Abe Shinzo took office in 2012, the Japanese government abandoned the 25% reduction target under the pretext that the need for thermal power generation increased due to the suspension of operations of nuclear power plants after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown. In July 2015, the Abe government submitted to the United Nations a new target of reducing its GHG emissions by 26% from 2013 levels in 15 years.

However, the year 2013 was when Japan released more carbon dioxide emissions than any other year since 1990. The new target of 26% below 2013 levels is equivalent to 18% below1990 levels. Kiko Network and other environmental NGOs criticized the Abe government for weakening the reduction target with the change in the baseline and ruining Japan’s credibility in the international community.

The Abe government in its basic energy plan describes nuclear power and coal-fired thermal power as “important baseload power sources” while labeling renewable energy sources as unstable and inefficient. As a result, Japan lags behind in the fight against global warming.

Past related articles:
>
Japan should play its role in ‘Paris Agreement’ to tackle climate change [December 15, 2015]
> Japan’s new target for cutting GHG emissions is too low [May 6, 2015]
> LDP proposes that energy generation depend more on nuclear power [April 8, 2015]
> Japan should keep its pledge to world to cut 25% of its greenhouse gas emissions [October 3, 2013]