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Behind Japan’s Climate Fail
Nuclear Energy and Global Warming Commitments
Voices at The Breakthrough Institute
by Roger Pielke, Jr.
The Japanese government announced last week its adoption of a new emissions reductions target: 3.8 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. This figure is a setback from an earlier target of reducing emissions by 25 percent from 1990 to 2020, part of a policy called “mamizu” that was criticized as being not ambitious enough, when in reality it would have been very difficult to achieve. The new target shows how Japan has once again implemented “mamizu” policies: in 2010, prior to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan got 18.5 percent of its total energy consumption from carbon-free sources. In 2012, it was 6.4 percent. To meet its new emissions reduction target (in terms of carbon dioxide), Japan will need to increase its proportion of carbon-free energy from 6.4 percent in 2012 to 9.1 percent in 2020, assuming no increase in energy consumption. Read more …
