Japan’s New Prime Minister Announces Aggressive Stance on CO2 Emissions

Yukio Hatoyama, the new Prime Minister for Japan, announced just a few months before the December UN climate talks in Copenhagen that he would be making aggressive policies to combat greenhouse gas emissions in Japan. Hatoyama is set to take office next week, and is expected to decrease CO2 emissions by 25% by 2020.

In June, the resigning government proposed policies which would cut emissions by 8% at a UN climate change meeting held in New York. However, Hatoyama’s initiative would far surpass that goal with a 25% deduction. 

The new initiative will place Japan in a good position to be competitive with other nations taking aggressive greenhouse gases emissions cuts. However, the proposal has met with some opposition from business and industry professionals saying the cuts would put jobs at risk during an already recessed economy.

The outgoing minister of trade, Harufumi Mochizuki, told media that Hatoyama’s initiative could put the Japanese economy and its people at risk. However, Hatoyama has maintained that his proposals would create jobs in the renewable energy sector when demands for solar energy and electric vehicles began to rise.

To encourage business to reduce their CO2 emissions and invest in renewable projects, the Japanese government will introduce a “feed-in” tariff, as well as introduce a domestic emissions trading scheme.

Many of these initiatives are expected to be implemented or announced in time for the Copenhagen UN climate change talks in December. The talks are expected to centre around encouraging China, India, and other quickly emerging economies to enact more aggressive CO2 emissions targets at home.