14. Northeast Asia: A. Japan

• Main Author: Watanabe, Rie
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alternative energy sources; Climate change; Coal-fired power plants; Construction planning; Control; Electric power generation; Electricity; Energy; Energy policy; Environmental law; Environmental law, International; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Interpretation and construction; Laws, regulations and rules; Nuclear accidents; Nuclear energy; Nuclear power plants; Paris Agreement; Steel making; Tariffs
• ISSN: 0965-1721; 2045-0052
• DOI: 10.1093/yiel/yvy062

Like previous years, climate change was one of the most important environmental issues in Japan in 2017, particularly with respect to implementation of the Paris Agreement. Another issue in Japan that attracted the attention of policy-makers, as well as the general public, was energy policies, in particular, the future energy mix. Although the government decided to supply approximately 20–2 percent of total electricity from nuclear sources in the 2014 basic energy plan, as of December, almost seven years after the Fukushima accident, only five out of forty-five nuclear power plants had been re-commissioned. The amount of renewable electricity, which grew under the feed-in tariffs introduced in 2012, was not sufficient to make up for nuclear capacity. Under the circumstances, utility companies and steel companies, as well as trading companies, have planned to construct coal-fired power plants, which will have a negative impact on reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and on the achievement of Japan’s targets under the Paris Agreement. The following sections of this contribution focus on Japan’s practices in the domain of climate as well as energy policies and, to a lesser extent, on ozone protection policy as related to the development of international environmental law.