Government to review the plan for global warming countermeasures ― Consider raising reduction target by 26% compared to FY2013
On July 14th, the Ministry of the Environment(MOE) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry(METI) launched a joint meeting by the Central Council of Environment (an advisory body of the Minister of Environment) and the Council of Industrial Structure (an advisory body of the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry) in August and announced that MOE and METI will start discussions on reviewi the plan for global warming countermeasures. MOE and METI will consider raising the reduction target of greenhouse gas by 26% in FY2030 compared to FY2013. They plan to submit new targets to the United Nations by COP26 (26th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in November 2021 while observing the future progress of revision for the Basic Energy Plan.
Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi stated in a post – the cabinet meeting press conference on July 14th, “We will broadly discuss future climate change countermeasures with insight to the Post-Corona direction.” The joint conference will proceed in concurrence with discussions on energy and environmental issues that will be launched in the autumn at the government’s council on Investments for the future, and discussions on the early reduction of inefficient coal-fired thermal power by METI. MOE and METI will establish new global warming countermeasures based on how energy demand will decrease due to behavioral changes caused by the new coronavirus.
Although the current global warming countermeasures were approved by the Cabinet in 2016 and was considered to be reviewed every three years, it has not started yet. MOE submitted the greenhouse gas emission reduction target (NDC) based on the global warming countermeasures to the United Nations in March, but succeeded the current target of “26% reduction in FY2030”. METI has indicated that it will submit additional goals from March when NDC was submitted to the date of COP26.