Japan and the Environment Yasuko Kameyama
4. Japan’s Strategy toward Global Environmental Problems
At a time when we are witnessing phenomena in the international community not seen before in international relations, how should Japan deal with global environmental problems?
(1) Japan should reinforce the alliance with the United States in responding to the rise of emerging countries and the relative decline of the United States. But this does not necessarily mean that Japan should concur with the position that “the United States does not need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” In order to change the inward-looking attitudes of the American people and Congress, it is necessary to have the United States recognize diverse risks outside the country.
If a certain country poses a military threat to Japan, Japan-US cooperation has been crucial to date.
Similarly, if a certain country monopolizes energy and scarce resources and their supply to Japan is suspended, it is necessary for Japan to build a relationship with the United States that allows Japan-US cooperation to respond to such an event.
Improvement of relations between Japan and Asian countries is as important as Japan-US relations. Sino-Japanese relations have been tense in recent years, but the continuation of the tense relationship is not desirable, particularly for Japan. It is necessary to develop relationships and systems under which Japan’s energy-saving technologies will contribute to emissions reductions in China and, in turn, Japan will be rewarded with economic benefits.
(2) As a resources-poor country, Japan would inevitably have to continue to manufacture products with comparative advantage and export them to other countries. Japan cannot compete with other countries based on the price of its products because labor and other costs are high relative to developing countries. Thus, it is important for Japan to continue to manufacture products that are of high quality as well as acceptable under policies of other countries. Though international negotiations on a future framework for climate change are making little headway at present, it is certain that the international community has clearly steered toward a low-carbon society. In China, production of photovoltaic panels is increasing sharply. In Japan, while the debate is going on about emissions reductions, fierce competition is being waged over technology development of a variety of storage batteries and next-generation automobiles. Instead of sticking to the rigid stance that “Japan cannot reduce emissions further,” Japan should mull over a strategy to aggressively promote investment in technologies conducive to emissions reductions as the driver of Japanese economy.
(3) In Japan, where domestic political leadership for tackling climate change is weak, it is difficult to take procedures to enact legislation for implementing commitments provided for under an international treaty that needs to be ratified at the international level. One good example of that is the fact that while the 6% emissions reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997, actual measures for the achievement of that target were not introduced until the Kyoto Protocol went into effect in 2005. In recent years, with no agreement in negotiations on a future framework for climate change in sight, domestic discussions on measures to cope with climate change have been left in limbo.
That is not necessarily the case in other countries, however. In Europe, for instance, the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) was considered and implemented even before the Kyoto Protocol took effect. In the United States, while the federal government has
decided to stay out of the Kyoto Protocol, some states have been exerting pathbreaking efforts. For example, the State of California and some other regions are actively promoting renewable energy.
State-level initiatives are important in the United States, as the State of California alone has emissions equivalent to the emissions level of a major country of the world.
Japan will be required to show that it is moving in the direction it believes to be right on its own without waiting for agreement on an international treaty. Some moves are already emerging in various areas in the country. The Metropolitan Tokyo Government, for example, has joined the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP),xi deepening international cooperation by transcending the national borders of Japan.
Global environmental problems cannot be solved overnight. In line with a long-term global trend, the Japanese society and economy as a whole is being called upon to proceed in the direction of sustainable development.
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v Donella H. Meadows, The Limits to Growth – The Club of Rome Report on the Human Crisis (Diamond, Inc., 1972).
vi World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), “Our Common Future” in Saburo Okita, ed., For the protection of the Earth’s future. [In Japanese.] (Fukutake Shoten, 1987).
vii Yasuko Kameyama, The new global environment policy. [In Japanese.] (Showado, 2010).
viii Paul Harris, ed., Climate Change and Foreign Policy (London: Routledge, 2009), esp. chap.1.
ix Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report, (the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
x Kyodo News, October 18, 2009.
xi About International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) , ICAP,
http://www.icapcarbonaction.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52&Itemid=2&lan g=ja, accessed on February 15, 2011.