Japan Reconsiders Plan to Cut Carbon Emissions

[FBaggins]

AGW deniers taking over Japan and Europe? Hardly.

TOKYO—Japan is reconsidering plans to cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 25% by 2020 due to a rethinking of its energy future, and the country is worried that it is spending too much on carbon-credit programs, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

Japan's doubts, prompted in part by its nuclear disaster in March, come at a time the European Union is questioning whether it should press ahead with plans to cut greenhouse-gas emissions if others don't follow suit.

"We don't want to give a wrong message to the international community, that's why I'm talking about the possible revision now," said Kazushige Nobutani, director of the Global Environmental Affairs Office at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204618704576640493862577426.html

And in related news...

BRUSSELS—The European Union is for the first time clearly questioning whether it should press ahead with long-term plans to cut greenhouse-gas emissions if other countries don't follow suit, in what could herald a significant policy shift for a region that has been at the forefront of advocating action to combat climate change.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204346104576638634143967012.html

Couldn't have anything to do with shutting down some of their largest carbon-free plants, now could it?

Nah! Just a coincidence I'm sure. :sarcasm:

[kristopher]

1. The long festering developed/developing nation schism ...

is the primary problem - China and India still refuse to pursue a grand plan.

As for the reaction to the meltdown of 3 reactors that has threatened the nation of Japan - what the hell did you expect?

"How should we deal with the risk that nuclear power might cause our country to perish?
This question is what led me to propose the creation of a society free from dependence on nuclear power."
-Naoto Kan Sept 2011


ETA: 700 Climate Action NGOs criticize Japan for promoting nuclear power

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan has been given the Fossil of the Day "award" at a U.N. climate change conference in Panama for pushing a scheme to promote its exports of nuclear power generation technologies to developing countries as a way of curbing global warming, an international environmental group said Monday.

The Climate Action Network, which groups some 700 nongovernmental organizations in 90 countries, said in a press release it had given Japan "first place" in the award for pushing for a mechanism for exporting nuclear technology despite the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The network said the Fukushima calamity "certainly destroyed the myth that nuclear power is safe and clean" and rapped Japan for its failure "to learn an important lesson from the accident."

In a working group meeting on climate change in the Central American country, Japan refused to drop the option of including a scheme under which exporters of nuclear plants to developing countries can earn emissions credits in the so-called "clean development mechanism," the network said.

The mechanism...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111004p2g00m0dm048000c.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x312837#312837

[FBaggins]

2. How could that be true?

I have it on good authority that China is a model for the world.

So your position is that it IS just a coincidence? They're both ramping up renewables but finding it harder and harder to foresee hitting their targets.

[kristopher]

3. There are a couple of aspects to that - 3 in fact

First is their role in the large-scale international agreements. I've never heard anyone say that China is helping that process along. What I've said is that the hopes for a new Kyoto style agreement have been virtually nil for quite some time.
THEREFORE
An alternative approach is to place less emphasis on trying to achieve such an impossible agreement and focus on an area where we CAN work cooperatively with China - the rollout of renewable energy. We know that the needed step is to bring the costs of renewables down.
We know that the path to that is building manufacturing infrastructure.
We know that in the developed nations the amount of existing infrastructure, to varying degrees, guarantees a political and economic constituency that makes changing the system of fossil fuel use extremely difficult.
The developing nations, particularly China and India, do not face that obstacle and they NEED power.
China has a lot of money to invest in renewable manufacturing infrastructure and they are putting it where it will do the most good.
They ARE a model for the world.

The third aspect is your knowledge base. Since the above information is well know, one can only assume that your post is evidence of either a gross lack of knowledge (meaning your credibility on the topic is poor) or that you are attempting to mischaracterize the news in the OP for unethical motives (meaning your credibility in general is poor).

[FBaggins]

4. The influence of developing nations on climate deals is nothing new.

And the right wing has been using that as an excuse to avoid green measures for decades.

Telling that you now adopt their spin to avoid a painful reality, wouldn't you say?

Something changed recently in both Japan and the EU... and those changes force them to accept that they can't meet their carbon targets.

You can run from that simple truth... But you can't hide.

Will you now move on to the other RW meme that the news is proof that the consensus on AGW is falling apart?

[Nihil]

5. To be fair ...

> Couldn't have anything to do with shutting down some of their largest
> carbon-free plants, now could it?

It also has a lot to do with the two largest CO2 producing countries
in the world showing absolutely fucking zero intent in changing their
direction in the near (or even middle) future.

Despite all of the scientific evidence building up and all of the new
technology that would help them achieve meaningful cuts, they both
insist on building more coal plants because they are cheap, quick and
profitable.

:argh:

[FBaggins]

6. Yep... but to actually be fair...

...one would have to consider that none of that sentence represents anything that has changed in recent years. Yet something caused these two to reconsider.

they both insist on building more coal plants because they are cheap, quick and profitable.


I wouldn't say so. If anything, China and India are doing/planning more to limit emmissions growth now than they did previously. The problem has always been that they're growing rapidly. China is building reactors and wind and solar and hydro at breakneck speeds... but a billion people emerging from comparative poverty means demand growth that outstrips even that.