Japan—US$376 million With scarce and rapidly dwindling fossil fuel resources of its own, Japan engages in only a small amount of domestic oil and gas exploration. It relies heavily on fossil fuel imports to meet its energy needs, particularly since the accelerated phase-out of nuclear power following the Fukushima disaster in March 2011. So while...
66% of people surveyed did not know that Japan was one of the highest GHG emitting countries in the world. This report is a summary of three polls conducted in 2016 with findings on the attitudes to climate change amongst the Japanese population. The first poll is the “Poll on Environmental Awareness 2016” (this source...
Japan: (1)Strengthen country pledge to the Paris Agreement; (2) Reduce the amount of coal in the country’s energy mix; (3) Set new standards for the thermal insulation of houses and buildings. Japan should strengthen its NDC in 2 ways. First, Japan should reduce the amount of coal in its projected energy mix for 2030. According...
Japan—No 2050 100% commitment Benchmark: 22-24% renewable energy in electricity generation by 2030 Japan plans to achieve 22-24% renewable energy of its electricity generation by 2030. However, it doesn’t have any long-term renewable energy goals. For 5 years, it has used Feed-in Tariff policies to support the use of renewable energy. The government introduced a...
Japan—Tokyo Metropolitan Cap and Trade System In Tokyo, there is a successful cap and trade system that will help meet Japan’s INDC pledge to the Paris Agreement, which is to achieve a 26% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 compared to emission levels in 2013. This is the first urban-type emission trading system in the...
Japan—Falling Behind The Japanese Government submitted their INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Japan pledged to reduce greenhouse gases by 26 % below 2013 levels, by 2030. In order to achieve this promise, the Japanese Cabinet approved the Global Warming Countermeasure Plan on May 2016. However, Japan’s...
Building Insulation Law The government recently passed a new law to make all buildings more energy efficient by 2020. The thermal insulation regulation standard of Japan has been criticized as inferior to that of other developed countries. For example, it is often pointed out that the regulation standard for insulating windows is inadequate. The new...
Typhoon # 10 The biggest natural disaster in Japan over the last three years was Typhoon No.10 in August 2016. It is known as Lionrock and is classified as a Category 4 typhoon. It severely damaged the Tohoku and Hokkaido regions in the northern part of Japan. According to AR5 produced by the IPCC, rising...
