Adapt Yourself to World Trend

It must be amazing for activists on climate change in Japan that Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, still insisted on reducing greenhouse gasses, which had been dismissed at the beginning of his second term two years ago. He introduced “adaptation initiative” as Japan’s new effort to tackle global warming, stressing supports to developing countries. But international concern to Japan had to be “What are you going to do for lowering your own carbon emission, anyway?” He had no answer for it.

The Prime Minister of Japan urged the world to stand up together to mitigate global warming, while Japan has no concrete mid-term goal since his administration abolished twenty-five percent reduction goal by 2020, set by former Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama. “Global warming is an undeniable fact. Let us move on. I introduce new action of Japan. First, it is support for developing countries with educating fourteen thousand people in climate change. Secondly, we will promote innovation and prevalence. Lastly, we need international framework for the future,” told Abe.

Please mind that Japan rejected the second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol between 2013 and 2020, Prime Minister. Why can a country out of current international framework take a leadership for building new consecutive framework? He quoted a word of “beautiful planet Earth,” which he used in 2007, when he attended Group Eight Summit of developed countries in Heiligendamm, Germany. It sounded to be something like title of a fairy tale we could not remember when we heard last time.

Most supporters of Abe in the business sector, mostly heavy industries or electric power companies currently dependent on nuclear power generation, turned their back to the agenda of climate change. They have been negative on prevalence of renewable energy, because it may make their business obsolete. Abe’s economic policy in his second term has completely been relying on them without hesitation. Abe is not in a position that he can require the world to be more cautious on climate change anyway.

The world is running ahead, while Japan has been hesitating these years. “The human environmental and financial cost of climate change is fast becoming unbearable,” said U.N. Secretary General, Ban Kimoon, in the Climate Summit. President of European Commission, Jose Barroso, explained the plan of European Union to reduce their emission of greenhouse gasses by forty percent on 1990 basis by 2030.

Japan lost seventy-four lives in Hiroshima in only one heavy rain this summer. There has been no eminent argument of denying the relationship of that unusual severe weather with climate change. However, Prime Minister of Japan still ignores that wake up call. He needs to persuade business sector to get together in securing people’s lives from coming natural disasters.