NGO Reports Japan Can Combat Global Warming Without Nuclear Power

Kiko Network, a Japanese environmental non-governmental organization that proposes solutions and takes actions to fight global warming, released a report on April 18, 2011, that concludes that Japan can help counteract global warming without the aid of nuclear power generation. In the report, titled "We Can Achieve The Three 25s," the Network lists three goals that Japan needs to achieve in order to help curb global warming: reduce power consumption by 25%, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25%, and increase use of renewable energy to 25%. It says all three can be achieved simultaneously.

In its discussion paper previously released in November 2009, Kiko Network proposed a roadmap by which Japan could easily reduce its GHG emissions by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020 and discussed the goal's feasibility. Since the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, there have been calls within both public and private sectors for Japan to revise the 25% reduction target. Responding to those calls, the Network carried out an urgent re-examination of the discussion paper based on updated data, and compiled the new report.

The report assumes that Japan will reduce its nuclear generating capacity by half from 2007 levels by closing old plants and halting construction of new plants. The major measures proposed in the report are: reduce coal- and oil-fired power generation by 70%, update all liquefied natural gas plants, increase the ratio of renewable to total power consumption to 25%, reduce total power consumption by 25% from 2007 levels, and introduce the "top-runner" approach to the industrial, business, household, and transportation sectors. The report also points out the potential economic benefits of achieving these goals, including special procurements of 10 trillion yen (approx. U.S.$120 billion) or more per year for anti-global warming measures, as well as the creation of new jobs in disaster-affected areas and for the young.

Posted: 2011/08/04 06:00:15 AM