Japan’s failure to set tougher climate target disappoints global community

(Eco Business, 2 Apr 2020) In its new plan to tackle global heating submitted to the United Nations this week, Japan has left its already unambitious emissions target untouched, drawing criticism from experts as well as architects of the historic Paris climate deal.

When Japan submitted its new climate action plan on Monday, expectations ran high. The first wealthy nation to do so, Japan could have led the way on climate action, spurring other industrialised countries to follow suit.

But it didn’t. Instead, the world’s fifth-largest emitter of climate-disrupting greenhouse gases announced that it would stick to its previous target to cut emissions by 26 per cent from 2013 levels—a commitment that has been rated as “highly insufficient” by research group Climate Action Tracker.

This year, all nations that inked the historic Paris climate deal in 2015 are expected to submit such updated and more ambitious commitments to reducing carbon emissions, or ‘nationally determined contributions’ (NDC), to achieve the key objective of the accord: keep global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius.

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Eco Business, 2 Apr 2020: Japan’s failure to set tougher climate target disappoints global community