No other nation made as big a commitment. China did announce major goals of using clean energy such solar, wind and nuclear power, but they did not commit to a specific target for reduction.
Hatoyama's announcement of 25% is pretty ambitious and I am not sure they will be able to meet it. But I think Japan has a good chance of meeting that goal. But not just because of a strong push by Japan and Japanese to be more efficient and produce more clean energy. But because of Japan's rapidly shrinking population and relatively stagnant economy.
A country with a shrinking population will generally produce less waste and less emissions. So his announcement of reducing emissions by 25% by 2020, although impressive, is not as amazing as it would seem.
Good point about the shrinking population and stagnant economy. I also wonder how much of that 25% will be serviced simply by "outsourcing" production overseas..
ReplyDeleteThat's right. I had not thought of that. That certainly should be a factor as well.
ReplyDeleteHatoyama's comment unfortunately shows how poorly he thinks things through before he speaks. I blogged about this on my site www.crazygaijin.com. But for your readers as well, Hatoyama also promised in the DPJ manifesto to completely remove the highway tolls. No tolls = more cars on the roads = more CO2 emissions. So how is Japan going to reduce CO2 emissions by a whopping 25%? Man this guy has only been PM for like what a week and he's already got me worried that he's more concerned with his goofy koizumi-esque hair than he is with sounding like a fool.
ReplyDeleteThat's right, I remember reading about his proposal to remove the highway tolls. That absolutely goes against his plan to reduce emissions. Bizarre.
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