information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
17 Juillet 2015
Juy 17, 2015
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150717_43.html
Jul. 17, 2015 - Updated 13:49 UTC+2
Industry ministry officials in Japan have devised a plan to develop new technologies for coal-fired power generation. They hope to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent in 10 years.
A panel with the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry published the roadmap. It calls for building large energy-efficient plants by the early 2020s.
The coal gasification technology is expected to cut emissions by about 20 percent. The plan also calls for developing another more advanced coal-gasification technology by around 2025.
The ministry says it will support utilities in line with the roadmap.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150717_30.html
Jul. 17, 2015 - Updated 10:07 UTC+2
Japan's power companies have come up with their own CO2 reduction target. The energy sector is Japan's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
An industry group that includes the country's top power companies announced on Friday that it will cut emissions by 35 percent by 2030.
The target refers to the amount of gases emitted from generating one kilowatt-hour of electricity.
The group says the cuts from 2013 levels will bring them back to pre-Fukushima accident levels in 2010. Fifty nuclear power plants were online at that time. Japan has imported massive quantities of fossil fuels since the nuclear disaster in 2011.
To achieve the goal, utilities will have to generate more energy from renewable sources and restart some nuclear plants.
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150717p2g00m0dm061000c.html
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese government officially decided Friday on a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent in 2030 from 2013 levels, as part of efforts to reach a new international agreement at the end of the year to tackle climate change.
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoichi Miyazawa told a press conference that the government will swiftly submit the plan to the Secretariat of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, "It is urgently needed to bolster efforts by the international community to combat climate change." He urged relevant Cabinet ministers to work together to realize Japan's national interests at U.N. climate talks.
The new reduction target, which is touted by Abe as "ambitious," only represents an 18 percent cut compared with the 1997 Kyoto Protocol's base year of 1990 and is viewed as insufficient among environmental activists.
Specifically, Tokyo will aim to achieve a 21.9 percent heat-trapping gas emissions reduction by promoting energy saving and reviewing its energy mix, or the proportion of electricity to be generated by various sources, and a 4.1 percent cut through forest absorption of carbon dioxide and reduced use of alternatives for chlorofluorocarbon, a major greenhouse gas.
The international community is seeking to create a new framework to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the current international framework for fighting global warming, at the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, or COP21, to be held in Paris in November and December.
As the basis for the reduction target, Japan on Thursday decided on its energy mix for 2030, under which the government plans to make nuclear power, with its near-zero carbon emissions, account for 20 percent to 22 percent of total electricity output.
Nuclear power accounted for around 30 percent of total output in Japan before the March 2011 Fukushima crisis, which put domestic nuclear power generation at a standstill.
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Reuters
The government said Friday that Japan will slash greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent by 2030 from 2013 levels and will submit the plan to the United Nations as its contribution to a global summit on climate change in Paris in November.
The target is based on the government’s power generation plan for 2030 that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry finalized Thursday. The plan calls for relying slightly less on nuclear power than on renewable energy following the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Using 2013 as a baseline, Japan’s 26 percent cut would be higher than an 18 to 21 percent cut by the United States by 2025 and a 24 percent cut by the European Union by 2030.
Japan — the world’s fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases — saw its emissions rise to 1.41 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, the second-highest on record, in the year through March 2014. That was up 10.8 percent from 1990, reflecting the rise in coal-fired power after the indefinite closure of nuclear power plants.
Green activists and some other countries that are calling for even bigger cuts say Japan will be blamed by the global community not only for a low target but also for plans to build more coal-fired power plants.
METI on Thursday said the government will plan to make nuclear energy account for 20 to 22 percent of Japan’s electricity mix in 2030, versus 30 percent before Fukushima.
It set the target for renewable energy at 22 to 24 percent of the mix, liquefied natural gas at 27 percent and coal at 26 percent.
The Federation of Electric Power Companies, whose members include the 10 main power monopolies, and 25 other firms said Friday they have voluntarily set a goal to curb carbon dioxide emissions per 1 kilowatt of power by 35 percent from 2013 levels to around 0.37 kg in 2030.
By installing fossil fuel-fired plants using the best available technology, the power companies see a potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 11 million tons a year, they said.
The Paris summit in November aims to finalize an agreement as part of efforts to limit the global average temperature rise to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
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