TOKYO: Japan’s government has proposed a 26 percent cut in the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared with 2013.
The reduction would be 25.4 percent from 2005 levels, according to a draft report presented to a panel of experts set up by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of the Environment.
The draft advises Japan to cut emissions through measures such as efficiency and the use of next-generation cars powered by sources such as fuel cells and electric motors.
Some countries have submitted their emission reduction plans to the United Nations ahead of meetings on climate change scheduled for December in Paris. The European Union promised a 40 percent cut from 1990 levels by 2030, while the U.S. said it will cut emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025.
Japan agreed in 2009, along with other G8 nations, to reduce carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050.
Japan’s previous commitments were made while the country still had atomic power generation.
The March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant and the subsequent shuttering of the nation’s nuclear generating capacity has resulted in a heavier reliance on greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuels.
Greenhouse gas emissions rose 1.2 percent in fiscal 2013 amid an increase in consumption of coal for power generation.
