KAZE, November 2020
Why not building up a green society?
Saburo KATO
Last August, Mr. Shinzo ABE stepped down from the Prime Minister ofJapan/LDP President because his chronic disease got worse. It was just aftercelebrating the long-time rule of his government of 7 years and 8months, which
was a surprise to all. As the successor to Mr. Abe, LDP elected Mr. Yoshihide SUGA,
the Chief Cabinet Secretary of the Abe administration, and he came into office on
16 September 2020. During the all-LDP election, Mr. Suga appealed that he will
inherit the policies of the Abe administration. However, as regards theclimate/energy policy, he seems to take the opposite stance. In his first speech on
26 October, he declared that his administration assumes the policy to realize GreenSociety, which is almost contrary to the Abe administration.
I think his declaration includes the following critical points for building aGreen Society: i) the positive growth cycle of the economy and environment as pilerof his government's development strategy; ii) zero GHGs emission by 2050; iii)
combat against global warming will bring about another economic development,
facilitating changes of industrial structure and economy; iv) become a leader of"green industries" mobilizing all possible measures including technology innovation,
promotion of R&D, regulatory reforms, green investment, etc.; v) efficient andeffective greening of society through digitalization; vi) enhanced energy-saving andextensive introduction of renewable energy while promoting safer nuclear energy
generation; vii) convert from the long-time energy policy based on coal-fired power
generation.
It is a drastic or almost evolutional change from the previous Abe
administration's energy policy. I have no idea what is the real goal of Mr. Suga, but
this is a positive change, and I highly welcome this new policy.
However, things may not be so easy to achieve CO2 zero-emission by 2050.
As the following graph indicates, CO2 zero-emission will require a drastictransformation of society.

Japan's GHG emissions (CO2 converted)（bil. t)）16

実績
actual

14

目標
targe

12
10
8
6
4
20

1990

2000

2010

2020

2030

2040

2050

Created by Kanbun based on the confirmed 2018 MOEJ data

Japan's total GHG emission in 1990 was 1.27 billion t, and the figure in2018 was 1.24 billion t, reducing only 2.8% in these 30 years. For the past threedecades, Japan made a great effort to address global warming (energy-saving at
work and home, solar panels on rooves, and more hybrid cars). Its population
sharply decreased, and many businesses left to China and SEA seeking lower costs.
Despite all these efforts, we were not able to reduce GHG emissions at a meaningfullevel.
We have only 30 years left until the target year of 2050. It would not be
possible to balance the emissions and absorption in thirty years only throughtechnological innovation. Prime Minister Suga requested his cabinet members totake enhanced measures to combat global warming in each area of their
responsibility. The Diet resolved the Climate Emergency Declaration to appeal theneed to build a decarbonized society.
It is good that both the Japanese government and the Diet started to makea step forward, but the issue at stake would be the contents of the measures to betaken by the government. Among the issues to be urgently addressed, I think,should be a) add sustainability issue to the Japanese constitution, b) greeningeconomy, c) greening technology, d) reliable education/information, and e) increase
citizen participation in making political decisions. Active and persevered action bybusiness, NGO/NPO, and media to discuss these critical issues would overcome theclimate crisis. It is time to show that the saying "where there is a will, there is away" applies to the climate issue when all social sectors work together.