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Japan to Lower Emissions by 20% by 2030 – A Disappointing Pledge

April 10, 2015

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April 10, 2015 – Japan is the latest major economy to pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% from current levels by 2030. In an article appearing in The Guardian on April 9, 2015, the government’s likely target was said to have been reported by Kyodo News out of Japan.

The formal announcement on reduction pledges is expected at the G7 meetings planned for June in Germany. This is not as significant a reduction as Japan intended before the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Before the earthquake and tsunami shuttered Japan’s nuclear power plants the country was committed to emission reductions of 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. But right now Japan has reverted to relying on coal-fired power plants to make up the energy loss from its nuclear facilities. It is a touchy subject in Japan, when those nuclear power plants (not Fukushima) will once again be turned on. This may happen this year.

For Japan, the world’s fifth biggest greenhouse gas emitter, a 20% reduction will not help the world meet its target of no more than a 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) rise in mean global temperatures. The Japanese branch of the World Wildlife Fund has pushed for target reductions of 50% from 2005 levels by 2030. But the uncertainty over nuclear remains the major stumbling block.

Japan is one of 34 countries to announce greenhouse gas reduction goals in the last month. Last week it was Russia (the world’s number three emitter) and the United States (number two). We are still waiting on China (the world’s number one emitter) which has yet to set reduction targets other than the bilateral agreement it established with United States a few months ago. India (number four) Australia (number seventeen) and Canada (number nine) are also shirkers in pledging national greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.