Japan to Legally Mandate 'Net Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2050'

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Japan is pushing to legally stipulate the goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide, who took office last September, presented a vision in his first parliamentary speech to implement policies that will result in net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. He also pledged to realize a decarbonized society at the G20 summit held online on the 22nd of last month.

According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) on the 20th, the Japanese government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have decided to include the decarbonized society goal proposed by Prime Minister Suga in law as a mechanism to ensure policy continuity even if the administration changes.

The Ministry of the Environment, the competent authority, plans to include this content in the amendment bill to the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures currently being prepared and submit it to the regular Diet session opening on January 18 next year.

Japan's Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures, enacted in 1998, stipulates the obligations of the state, local governments, and businesses for warming countermeasures. The amendment bill will mention the goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions, considering absorption by forests and other means, and specify the deadline as "by 2050."

Additionally, there is discussion about reflecting in this law the expression from the Paris Agreement on climate change, which commits to efforts to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5℃, well below 2℃ compared to pre-industrial levels.

Until now, the Japanese government has set mid- to long-term goals for warming countermeasures not in the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures itself but in implementation plans under this law, which have been decided by the Cabinet.

The implementation plan decided by the Japanese government in 2016 stipulates reducing greenhouse gases by 26% by 2030 compared to 2013 levels, and by 80% by 2050.

Nikkei explained that it is unusual for the Japanese government to legally fix the timing for realizing policies pursued over the mid- to long-term. The background is analyzed as aiming to enhance Japan's voice in the international community's climate change response process and to create an environment for strengthening cooperation with the United States and Europe.

The only precedent for the Japanese government legally setting the timing for realizing mid- to long-term policies is the case of radioactive contaminated soil from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant explosion accident, which is to be removed outside Fukushima Prefecture and finally disposed of within 30 years after the start of interim storage.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.