Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Japan, which hilariously defined investment in high efficiency coal plants as “climate finance“, now plans to meet Paris commitments, by building even more coal plants.
In the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster Japan mothballed its fleet of nuclear reactors, relying on fossil fuel imports to meet energy demand.
But last week prime minister Shinzo Abe said these would need to be switched back on to meet energy demand.
“Our resource-poor country cannot do without nuclear power to secure the stability of energy supply while considering what makes economic sense and the issue of climate change,” he said.
Around 40 new coal power plants are planned up to 2030, according to the Global Coal Plant Tracker.
“The main concern is measures on emissions from coal power plants,” Yukari Takamura, a climate policy expert who helped draft the climate plans told Carbon Pulse.
“Since construction of many new coal plants are planned, the government will put in place some regulatory measures but, I suppose, with quite weak enforcement.”
Let us hope more governments follow the inspirational Japanese approach to reducing CO2 emissions.