Tokyo, May 26 (Jiji Press)–The Diet, Japan’s parliament, on Wednesday enacted a climate change law amendment to include the government’s goal of realizing carbon neutrality in the country by 2050.
By writing the target into the law, the administration of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga aims to demonstrate both at home and abroad its resolve to combat global warming. In October last year, Suga set the goal of reducing Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions effectively to zero by 2050.
The bill to revise the law on the promotion of measures to curb global warming was approved unanimously at a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, on the day, following its passage through the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, late last month.
Until now, the Japanese government has included its emissions cut targets in related action programs and adopted them at a cabinet meeting.
The revised law stipulates that measures against global warming must be promoted to realize a decarbonized society by 2050. The inclusion of the target in the law shows the Suga administration’s determination that the country will pursue the goal regardless of developments such as a change of government.
The amended law also obliges prefectural governments, ordinance-designated cities and other major cities to set their respective goals of introducing solar and wind power in a bid to accelerate the use of renewable energy sources in their communities.
Municipalities across the nation are also urged to make efforts to set areas where construction of power plants using renewable energy will be promoted.
In addition, the law calls for allowing part of environmental impact assessment procedures to be omitted for the construction of renewable energy plants that are recognized by relevant municipal governments as good projects.
The Paris Agreement, an international framework to combat global warming, calls for efforts to be made to limit the average global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius from the pre-industrial levels.
The Japanese government set its carbon neutrality target to support the attainment of the Paris Agreement goal.
