Blaming the impact of a shuttered nuclear power industry Japan has drastically weakened its greenhouse-gas reduction target, drawing international criticism at United Nations climate change talks.
The change in the carbon dioxide-emissions goal is a dramatic turnaround for a nation that had championed the earlier Kyoto treaty on climate change.
Reuters Newsagency reports it was made inevitable when the nation’s 50 nuclear plants were closed in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which wrecked the Fukushima facility northeast of Tokyo.
It also brought a strong rebuke from near neighbour, China, which is also the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter.
Asked about Japan’s watered-down target, China’s lead climate negotiator, Su Wei said, “I have no way of describing my dismay”.
The Japanese government decided to target a 3.8 per cent cut in CO2 emissions by 2020 versus 2005 levels, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.
That amounts to a three per cent rise from 1990 levels, a sharp reversal of the previous target of a 25 per cent reduction from 1990 levels, the benchmark level for climate talks.
“The new target is based on zero nuclear power in the future. We have to lower our ambition level,” said Hiroshi Minami, Japan’s chief negotiator at the UN talks taking place in the Polish capital, Warsaw.
Reuters reports Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocates a return to nuclear power, although he says he wants to reduce Japan’s reliance on nuclear over time.
The process of restarting reactors will be slow, starting early next year at the soonest, and some will never come back on line due to safety concerns after Fukushima.
The loss of nuclear power, which had accounted for 26 per cent of Japan’s electricity generation, has forced the country to import dirtier natural gas and coal, causing its greenhouse gas emissions to skyrocket.
Japan will aim to cut emissions by 2.8 per cent through planting trees, while the remainder will be done by reducing emissions from energy and industry or by using carbon credits bought from other countries.
Mr Minami said the 2020 target could be revised again if Japan reintroduces nuclear in its energy mix.
Reuters reports Japan also pledged $16 billion by 2015 to help poor nations reduce their emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change, such as higher sea levels and more droughts.
Mr Minami said the aid would be a mix of grants and loans, with $13 billion coming from the government and the rest from the private sector.
“I expect I will face significant criticism,” Mr Minami said in Warsaw, where the talks are continuing through this week, adding that developing countries and green groups in particular would be disappointed.
Poor nations want the developed world to commit to deeper emissions cuts while providing more climate finance, a key issue at the Warsaw talks.
However, while countries including the United States, Canada and Australia have been targeted by green groups for doing too little on climate change, Japan had largely been left out of the firing line due to its ambitious 2020 goal.
