3 WHY JAPAN IS NO-LONGER A FRONT-RUNNER: DOMESTIC POLITICS …
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of the entire nuclear problem Japan faces today. Other aspects include
the costs of compensation for the victims of the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear accident, uncertainties regarding technological development and
the economic costs of taking out spent fuel rods and decommissioning
severely damaged nuclear reactors, finding ways and places to dispose of
highly radioactive nuclear wastes, dealing with the excessive accumulation
of plutonium, and more.
Conclusion
In Paris in December 2015, 195 countries completed the task set in
Durban in 2011 and adopted the Paris Agreement. They also agreed
that through five-year reviews, each nationally determined contribution (NDC) would be more ambitious than the last to keep global
temperature rise “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue
efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C” (UNFCCC 2015).
Japan received the Fossil-of-the-Day Award twice during COP25 held
in Madrid in December 2019 because it could not commit to more
ambitious reduction targets while sticking to coal power plants.
Climate change mitigation policy and energy policy, over which METI
has jurisdiction, are closely related to each other. The lack of reliable and
stable political leadership on the issue of energy policy and climate policy
has allowed organized vested economic interests and METI to solidify
their policy coalition against the substantial introduction of renewables
that would enable fulfilling ambitious GHG reduction targets. Thus,
despite its tremendous potential to become a vital force in climate change
negotiations, Japan has relinquished both its leadership and its initiative.
Instead, it has withdrawn into the role of an intermediate or supportive
state and has even become a laggard. It is crystal clear that Japan should
choose a renewable energy path, and as other chapters in this book
make clear, there are lots of private and local communities’ initiatives for
developing renewable energy. What Japan lacks now is political will and
visionary political leadership to embrace this path wholeheartedly.
69
of the entire nuclear problem Japan faces today. Other aspects include
the costs of compensation for the victims of the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear accident, uncertainties regarding technological development and
the economic costs of taking out spent fuel rods and decommissioning
severely damaged nuclear reactors, finding ways and places to dispose of
highly radioactive nuclear wastes, dealing with the excessive accumulation
of plutonium, and more.
Conclusion
In Paris in December 2015, 195 countries completed the task set in
Durban in 2011 and adopted the Paris Agreement. They also agreed
that through five-year reviews, each nationally determined contribution (NDC) would be more ambitious than the last to keep global
temperature rise “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue
efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C” (UNFCCC 2015).
Japan received the Fossil-of-the-Day Award twice during COP25 held
in Madrid in December 2019 because it could not commit to more
ambitious reduction targets while sticking to coal power plants.
Climate change mitigation policy and energy policy, over which METI
has jurisdiction, are closely related to each other. The lack of reliable and
stable political leadership on the issue of energy policy and climate policy
has allowed organized vested economic interests and METI to solidify
their policy coalition against the substantial introduction of renewables
that would enable fulfilling ambitious GHG reduction targets. Thus,
despite its tremendous potential to become a vital force in climate change
negotiations, Japan has relinquished both its leadership and its initiative.
Instead, it has withdrawn into the role of an intermediate or supportive
state and has even become a laggard. It is crystal clear that Japan should
choose a renewable energy path, and as other chapters in this book
make clear, there are lots of private and local communities’ initiatives for
developing renewable energy. What Japan lacks now is political will and
visionary political leadership to embrace this path wholeheartedly.