By AFP - Agence France Presse
Japan sets new emissions cut target for 2035
Kyoko Hasegawa and Tomohiro Osaki
On Tuesday, Japan pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% over the next decade from 2013 levels, but climate campaigners said the target fell short of what was needed under the Paris Agreement to limit global warming.
Under the Paris Agreement, each country must provide the United Nations with a headline figure for reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases by 2035 and a detailed plan for how to achieve this goal.
Japan is highly dependent on imported fossil fuels and is the fifth largest individual emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, after China, the United States, India, and Russia.
On Tuesday, Tokyo's Environment Ministry said the country would cut emissions by 60% by fiscal year 2035.
The world's fourth largest economy also aims to cut emissions by 73% by fiscal year 2040 as part of its new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) - a voluntary commitment to be presented to the UN later on Tuesday.
Almost 200 nations had to submit their new climate plans by February 10, but only 10 did so on time, according to a UN database that tracks submissions.
The Japanese ministry said on Tuesday that its “ambitious targets (are) in line with the global goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius and on a direct path to achieving net zero by 2050”.
But Masayoshi Iyoda, of the international environmental group 350.org, noted that scientists say an 81 percent cut in emissions is needed by 2035 for Japan to meet its commitments to the 1.5 degree target.
“This is a major failure in Japan's attempt to make the transition to a renewable energy future that is fair and equitable,” he told AFP.
Kazue Suzuki, from Greenpeace Japan, also said that the new target was “too low”, calling for a 78% reduction, given “our responsibility as an industrially advanced country”.
- Renewable future?
UN climate chief Simon Stiell called the latest round of national pledges “the most important political documents of this century”.
However, only a few of the main polluters delivered the updated targets on time, with China, India, and the European Union being the biggest names on a long list of absentees.
There is no penalty for submitting late targets, which are not legally binding but act as an accountability measure to ensure that countries are taking climate change seriously and doing their fair share to achieve the Paris goals.
In 2016, Japan committed to a 26% reduction in emissions by 2030. In 2021, it strengthened this commitment to 46% by 2030, compared to 2013 levels.
The Japanese government also approved its latest Strategic Energy Plan on Tuesday, which includes the intention to make renewables the country's main source of energy by 2040.
Almost 14 years after the Fukushima disaster, Japan also sees an important role for nuclear power to help it meet the growing energy demands of AI and microchip factories.
Therefore, an earlier promise to “reduce dependence on nuclear power as much as possible” has been dropped from the new plan.
A draft plan released in December had said that Japan would jointly promote renewable energy and hydrogen fuel with its ally, the United States.
But after President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the Paris Agreement last month, mentions of a US-led clean economy framework were deleted.
“We made some adjustments” after Trump's announcements, an Industry Ministry official told reporters on Monday.
But “this does not mean that Japan's broader efforts towards a ‘green transformation’ will be altered significantly,” he said.
Around 70% of Japan's energy needs in 2023 were met by power plants burning coal, gas, and oil - a figure Tokyo wants to reduce to 30-40% over the next 15 years.
Almost all of these fossil fuels need to be imported at a cost of around US$470 million a day, according to Japanese customs.
According to the new plans, renewable energies such as solar and wind power are expected to account for 40-50% of electricity generation by 2040.
kh-tmo-kaf/mtp
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