An Appeal to Prime Minister Abe of JapanLet COVID-19 open the way to a decarbonized sustainable society!!

Konoe FUJIMURA
Saburo KATOKANBUN 21, a Japanese Environmental NPO
Since the end of last year, the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) has quickly
spread all over the world, causing tremendous damages not only to our lives but
also to the global economy. What is worse, the COVID-19 pandemic has more
seriously impacted socially vulnerable people suffering from poverty and socialgaps. It also presented emerging threats to public health, and governments are
struggling to respond to the quickly changing situation.
Nobody will deny the urgent need to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, and neither
do we, but we are deeply concerned about the growing "environmental crisis"
which tends to be ignored behind the corona crisis. Amid the pandemic, theenvironment, a sound basis of our lives/social activities, has been neglected, andthe environmental crisis has not been addressed properly and timely.
In the international community, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that
revitalization from the COVID-19 pandemic should accelerate "decarbonization" ofall aspects of the world economy. In Europe, the European Commission
emphasizes the concept of Green Transition (transition to environmentally friendlyand sustainable society) as a part of the recovery plan from the COVID-19 crisis.
Looking back to Japan, a few Keidanren member businesses are beginning torealize the importance of green policies. Environment Minister Koizumi organized ameeting with the Japan Climate Initiative, a network of climate action takers inJapan, to exchange views on the idea of green recovery in Japan.
Despite these movements, the current government of Japan has not taken any
substantial action to integrate green policies and post-pandemic responses.
Rather, taking advantage of the corona crisis, some people are going against thedecarbonization. For example, the new law to strengthen the energy supply wasdiscussed and enacted as a package of bills. The package includes the reformationof JOGMEC (Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation) which could enhance
the coal mining, and the bill to establish FIP (Feed-in Premium) and long-distancepower grid, which could prevent the expansion of renewable energy. Each of
those bills should need careful deliberation, but the Government forced to pass
the package of bills in February without discussing each of them in detail.
Moreover, the Government pressed the revision of the Act on Special Accounts,
which will allow them to divert the budget for renewable energy promotion to thenuclear accident treatments. This budget was combined with the budget fordisaster recoveries and forced through the Diet without much deliberation.
To successfully realize the "new mode of life" as suggested by the Government,
we need to change not only our values and the ways of life but our society andthe economy also need to change. However, from the current administration, wecannot sense a strong will to lead the new life toward a decarbonized society.
Instead, they decided to issue a huge amount of bonds and passed the bills on
future generations without clarifying how to distribute and use the money. It is areal shame that the vicious practices of unclear policymaking are continuing evenafter the corona crisis.
We, Kanbun 21, sincerely wish that, while paying ample attention to climate
disasters and heatstrokes, the after-corona policies and recovery measures willalign with the international trend toward decarbonization and lead us to build asustainable civil society.