Japan to renege on emissions cuts

Timing is everything in politics, but evidently nobody told Katsuya Okada. Japan's deputy prime minister picked an unfortunate time to scale back on planned emissions cuts, given that carbon dioxide levels over parts of Japan just hit an all-time high (see "Carbon dioxide levels reach a new milestone").

In 2009, then prime minister Yukio Hatoyama promised that Japan would cut emissions by 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. But on 30 May, Okada told journalists that those plans may have to be scrapped. The government is now considering setting a new target.

The problem is the shutdown of Japan's nuclear reactors. Following the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, and the ensuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, they have been powered down for safety tests. Japan's last operational reactor went offline on 5 May, and proposals to restart reactors have triggered public protests.

As a result, Japan has had to fall back on fossil fuels. According to the US Energy Information Administration, Japan used 40 per cent more coal, oil and gas in the first four months of 2012 than in the same period in 2011. A rise in the country's greenhouse gas emissions was inevitable.

The environment ministry's Central Environment Council says that without nuclear power, emissions will only drop by between 2 and 11 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020. If nuclear power plants were switched back on, however, Japan could cut emissions by up to 27 per cent by 2030.

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