Kaze, August 2021

Ethics is a key to discuss the environment
Konoe FUJIMURA
Since Prime Minister Suga s statement last October, decarbonization has
been widely discussed among government members, experts, and businesspeople. These discussions, however, are mostly about technology and costs, andfew are about the vision of the future society, its ethical basis, or values. Thisposes a concern about the future of this country. Having seen deteriorated ethics
prevailing in the public domain (forgetful politicians leaving Fukushima behind,clever government officials keen on reading between lines, and big companies
attempting to conceal internal wrongdoings systematically), I am more concerned
about the vison-less decarbonization discussion fatally lacking a sense ofethics/morality.
I will give you one example. On 13 May, RITE1, commissioned by METI2,
submitted to a government committee a result of their scenario
assumption/calculation3 seemingly supporting the METI s policy of maintaining
nuclear and thermal power generation. The report, without showing the premisesof their calculation, indicated that, if renewable energy is introduced 100%, theenergy price will be almost four times higher than the current price. METI, basedon this calculation, intended to reflect their energy policy to the government s
basic energy plan which is to be amended soon in response to Prime Minister
Suga s statement. Facing strong criticism from NPOs and environmental research
institutes as well as by the public, METI modified the report and came up withanother set of figures which indicates that the cost of solar power generation in
2030 would be the lowest of all energy options. This example reveals METI sepistocratic attitude, discussing only among the knowers. Their closed
policymaking process made people feel anxious about the future energy of thiscountry and increased public distrust of the government's energy policy.

1
2

Research Institute of Innovative Technology for Earth
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

3

https://www.rite.or.jp/system/en/global-warming-ouyou/download-data/E-202106analysisaddver.pdf

Besides, the act of this research institute under METI presenting with amisleading figures seems to be against the ethics of scientists. Regrettably, theyneglected their responsibility of presenting a scientific justification of their results,
and what is worse, they failed to act faithfully and exercise professional ethics asscientists. Further, it is impermissible that the public discussion is based on such
an ambiguous argument. METI, partly reflecting the modified calculation result,submitted the draft amendment of the basic energy plan, but nuclear and thermal
power generation is still there, which will make it difficult to achieve the 2030 and2050 reduction targets. The draft plan will be publicized for comments. However,the public comment system of this country has become a mere façade, so we are
not sure if they are appropriately reflected in the actual policy.
Today, ecocide (massive destruction of environment and ecosystems) is
widely recognized in many countries (but it is yet to be discussed and has not
become even a topic in Japan). A group of international law experts requested ICC(International Criminal Court) to apply ecocide to substantial environmental
destruction as a serious international crime. In France, suggested by the Citizen'sConvention for Climate, ecocide is defined as “intentional environmentaldestruction causing long time serious damage on water, air, and soil at a nationallevel." The French National Assembly approved the ecocide bill with punitive
measures applied to individuals and corporations.
To tackle increasingly complex environmental issues, we need to employ
various measures including legal measures. Especially in this globalized world,
resorting to legal actions, in addition to political and diplomatic measures, would
be useful and inevitable under certain circumstances. However, there might beother solutions than those confrontational approaches. Considering that climatechange and serious environmental destructions are critical issues for our life andsociety, we sincerely wish that politicians, government officials, entrepreneurs,and scientists share a sense of ethics as a human. We believe that our ethicalattitude, humanity, and integrity should be the main power base in addressing
various social issues including environmental issues.