Tokyo leads the way to combat CO2 emissions

It is great to see cities and states get tough on greenhouse gas emissions. California enacted a cap on global warming emissions in 2006, and yesterday the Tokyo metropolitan assembly adopted an ordinance requiring large businesses to reduce their CO2 emissions to specified levels, the first such obligation in Japan.

By 2020, factories and offices will be required to reduce their CO2 output by 15-20 percent of the average amounts emitted from 2005 to 2007, sources said. A maximum fine of 500,000 yen will be imposed against those that fail to meet their targets. This mandatory program will start in 2010.

Satoshi Yamashita, director at Tokyo’s environmental policy planning section, told Reuters that the new limits would help Tokyo reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2021, compared with 20 years earlier.

By then, of course, we will probably not be living in an oil based economy anymore, and people will be wondering what everyone was thinking back in the noughties.

Tokyo is a member of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Groupe, and will host a C40 Conference on Climate Change in October, 2008. "Global warming is the most critical environmental issue ever faced by humanity", notes Tokyo mayor Shintaro Ishihara. Way to go.