The government's 2008 white paper on the environment deals with the transition to a low-carbon and recycling society. In view of the expiration in 2012 of the Kyoto Protocol, it stresses the need to build a post-Kyoto framework under which all major greenhouse gas-emitting countries strive to curb emissions. Since Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will chair the summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in July in Hokkaido, the government must carry out serious efforts to reduce emissions at home while presenting bold, effective proposals to the international community.
The white paper stresses that global warming has progressed to the point where there is no time to waste. To prevent cataclysmic climate change, greenhouse gas emissions must peak between 2020 to 2030 and then decrease, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change points out. Past performance shows that Japan will have to do a lot to gain credibility from the international community in the fight against global warming. The Kyoto Protocol requires Japan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a level 6 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. But Japan's fiscal 2006 emissions were 6.2 percent higher than in the base year. It will be not be easy for Japan to fulfill its obligation.
Although Japan's energy-saving technologies are advanced, the government, facing resistance from the industrial sector, has failed to work out effective policy measures to reduce emissions. In solar-power generation capacity, Japan slipped from the top position in 2006, behind Germany. Japan's wind-power generation capacity is No. 13 in the world.
The white paper points out that energy consumption in Japan's household sector in 2005 was 44 percent higher than in 1990. Mr. Fukuda must involve both the industrial and household sectors in national efforts to reduce emissions.