Tokyo, 21 July 2021 – In response to the Japanese government’s presentation of a draft Basic Energy Plan at METI’s subcommittee, Greenpeace Japan released the following statement.
Hisayo Takada, Program Director at Greenpeace Japan, said:
“As the world is suffering from deadly heat waves, droughts, heavy rains and melting ice sheets today, the revision of the Basic Energy Plan is a pivotal point to demonstrate Japan’s political will to achieve net-zero by 2050. However, the draft plan is disappointing as it is not anywhere near sufficient to meet the 1.5℃ target.
Increasing renewable energy merely to 36-38% and failing to commit to ending fossil fuel, Japan has become a roadblock to advancing international cooperation in tackling the climate crisis. Japan must phase out all coal power domestically by 2030 and cease all public financing of coal-fired operations domestically and abroad, including the export of coal-fired power generation technology.
Moreover, Japan must stop sending the wrong signal to the world by supporting the nuclear industry – maintaining the same share of nuclear power of 20-22% is nothing but a false dream that can’t be achieved without restarting many old dangerous reactors and building new ones. Nuclear power plants have a history of problems with safety management and the problem of final disposal of nuclear waste.
Over the course of the last decade Japan missed the opportunity to champion a decarbonizing economy through its failure to revise its energy policy to increase renewable energy to its potential, advancing towards energy conservation and energy efficiency. The technical and economic barriers to a renewable energy transition have been overcome in many parts of the world. The only impediment to change now is political.
Japan’s energy plan relies too much on unproven technologies with uncertain availability, costs and climate impacts. Japan must invest in energy efficiency plan and deploy sustainable renewable energy at least 50% by 2030, end subsidies to nuclear and fossil fuels and stop focusing on the development of unproven technology that does not help cut overall emissions.”
ENDS