NGO: "Promote natural energy!"

NHK World reports that participants at a meeting on global warming have urged the Japanese government to review its measures aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The symposium, hosted by Kiko Network, a Japanese non-profit organization focusing on climate change, was held in Tokyo on Saturday. There are serious concerns that Japan may not be able to meet the Kyoto protocol target. Under the protocol, Japan is obliged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels by the year 2012, but the emissions have so far increased by 8 percent, notes NHK:

Environment ministry officials attending the meeting said this was because operations at many nuclear power plants were unexpectedly suspended due to operational problems. This required increased use of conventional thermal power generation using oil and coal.

The representative of the non-profit organization criticized the government, saying it should have made more efforts to promote the use of natural energy. Others said the government should introduce tougher measures, such as limiting emission of carbon dioxide at companies, and imposing a new tax on gasoline consumers.

The NPO representative said Japan's efforts to tackle global warming has made little progress in the past decade. She said that she hopes more discussions on future measures will be made at similar symposiums.


Kiko Network (English website)
Symposium information (in Japanese)

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