Diet session opens; Suga says Japan to go carbon-free by 2050

Looking forward to Suga celebrating this one in person in 2050! Except, he'll be well gone by then. Kind of seems pointless, like many of the LDP policies. I feel Japan is just jumping on the bandwagon here. Time shall tell!

I feel Japan is just jumping on the bandwagon here

100% agree, all of Japan is just jumping on the bandwagon that the West started, what another big disgrace. People would respect Japan more if they just didn't even bother with this silliness from the start.

It's the LDP style of doing things. Abe was the same, with his declarations of goals related to women in management positions, which in the end were not achieved in even government itself.

Suga will be retired by 2040, so why he didn't at least shoot for 2040 I don't know. (Or does he intend to be earning a parliamentary salary when he is 90? Maybe...)

all of Japan is just jumping on the bandwagon that the West started, what another big disgrace. People would respect Japan more if they just didn't even bother with this silliness from the start.

Sigh. Always so negative. Suga is right in taking this step. All OECD nations should now follow Japan and make this commitment to reduce CO2 emissions and save future generations from even more man-made warming.

Good for Suga.

Suga has been pumping out consumer-friendly policies.

I suppose this is refering to his meddling in prices for mobile phone plans. I'd much prefer that government would take measures to ensure competition, rather than pass decrees about how much in particular any thing should cost. If consumers aren't taking advantage of competition to get a better deal, I'm not convinced at all that it's a good idea for government to jump in and tell us how much the price should be. What's next, upper limits on the prices of mobile phones too?

He also promised more for single-parent households, more than half of which are living in poverty.

"Poverty" in a Japan-specific sense. Certainly I don't want kids to be doing it hard and become disadvantaged because of their personal circumstance. But at the same time I would like to think government has a role to play in ensuring perverse incentives for poor behavior are not established, either. Japan wants kids, yes, but it's better for the kids if they have a happily functioning family to raise them. What is Suga going to do about that?

Japan will achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050

China and US are mainly responsible for producing carbons. Japan's target would be easily ruined in global levels unless they change their course.

I think that carbon-free by 2050 is impossible without any breakthrough innovation. However, Japan has contributed to reduction of carbon dioxide by means of decrease of population, promotion of hybrid cars and invention of lithium ion battery and blue LED.

Hopefully those politicans will do somethink about family laws before that.

Spiriting away my daughter at age 12 and now first contact again at age 34.

Do you call that G well 10 country?Edo means no refuse

Who are these masked men?

Oh, bla bla bla! How does Suga intend to supply 60% of Japan’s energy needs without fossil fuels? Increase the number of reactors in Japan by 3x to 200 in less than half a century? They can’t even dispose of the nuclear waste they have now!

How about the carbon output from all the factories and cars? This knucklehead is full of poop!

2050!

pfft, so far away. What a joke.

China and US are mainly responsible for producing carbons.

Don't forget others countries benefit from China's pollution.

Japan is one of them : using chinese factories for production of goods and sending back dump to China for recycling/burning

When you cook in your neighbor's kitchen and pooh in his toilet, your place is obviously cleaner.

An article in Nippon.com from 2019 said that Japan currently gets 32% of its electricity from burning coal. Just converting those energy plants to natural gas would reduce carbon emissions by half.

The US EIA says that Japan is the third largest importer of coal in the world.

Clearly, much can be done to reduce the emissions from burning coal in Japan.

Regarding the issue of going carbon-free, it is probably the case that most people without a scientific background do not realize the state we are in with global warming. Action needs to be taken to keep the planet habitable for life as we know it. Exactly what that action needs to be will be debated and plans will be altered along the way, but taking the threat of global warming seriously needs to happen.

Zero carbon emissions? Really? Is that really necessary? Sounds a bit extreme to me and I'm worried about the cost. As long as it will not be too costly, I'm sure it's fine, but the whole global warming thing is overhyped in my mind. I'm not a fan of huge quick radical changes that cost tons of money.

as usually Japan will order the dirty work in other countries and claim that Japan is complying with low carbon emission...

Fighto!Today  04:29 pm JST

all of Japan is just jumping on the bandwagon that the West started, what another big disgrace. People would respect Japan more if they just didn't even bother with this silliness from the start.

Sigh. Always so negative. Suga is right in taking this step. All OECD nations should now follow Japan and make this commitment to reduce CO2 emissions and save future generations from even more man-made warming. 

Good for Suga.

Eehhmm with all the due respect I rather follow the European Union model in this specific case:)

By that time civilisation will instead be amphibian fish living in a desert. Apart from New Zealand..

It always Gives me goosebumps when I hear such statements!

Gives me goosebumps when I hear such statements!

It is irrational illogical to go carbon zero.

The only way we can go to zero carbon emission is by killing everything on planet earth.

To go to carbon neutral Is on the other hand possible. However not by 2050, unless we have a complete and total lockdown which would again kill a lot of people and those corpses would emit a lot of carbon emissions.

Bringing us back to square one.

The only question is who is threatening him behind and forced him to tell that... lol

At least the nearly weaponised uranium plutonium is mostly stored in Europe do they have a plan for that?

Nice mask by the way a good theif, criminal should always wear one.

Carbon neutral by 2050? Not exactly setting them selves a demanding target are they!

Note that nuclear is not carbon neutral. Also Japan would have to forgo wrapping every little thing in its own plastic wrapper. End kerosene heaters. Have insulation. Go full bore on actual renewable-non-waste-creating energy.

Sure it can be done, but given an asterisk beside everything here and it comes up empty

It was weird when Japan didn't even join the Kyoto protocol. This just feels like lip service to kick the can down the road to another oyagi administration

Ambitious my butt! 2030 would be ambitious. Most of Japan and it’s population will be underwater by 2050, and the rest unlivable. But, as usual, kick the can down the road.

"Most of Japan and it’s population will be underwater by 2050, and the rest unlivable."

I hope that they will all migrate to Canada, leaving you there alone.

Everyone happy.

Simples.

 All OECD nations should now follow Japan and make this commitment to reduce CO2 emissions and save future generations from even more man-made warming. 

Some nations are already green, so this notion of following Japan is funny. Countries didn't wait decades but made the investments. Event states within nations, ie: NSW in Australia might be carbon free before 2030 in spite of a coal/gas muddled national government.

Renewables scale and are cheap now, so any investment in nuclear is just a waste of money, in the tens of billions each reactor, not to mention the waste that lasts tens of thousands of years. By that metric it is the most fraudulent, polluting, and the most criminal. Put the same money into renewables and you'd have it done in the 2030's.

Japan is an island nation on the ring of fire, and as such has a lot of opportunities that other nations do not have. It's closest comparison would be New Zealand. NZ's target? Carbon Zero by 2050.

Do you want to bet that NZ will meet that target before Japan? That NZ is passing laws and energizing its population to find ways to do so?

Japan can too, but the lethargy of inaction and indecision will have to be swept away, today, to get there

Also given the oceans rising, nuclear isn't movable. There will be many cities that might not even be viable in 30 years. Wasting money on wasted solutions isn't the way to go. Check out http://flood.firetree.net/ . Modular approaches will be required and nuclear isn't it. Renewables go where people go.

2050 is TOO slow. The earth is dying right now, and has been for a while. We're now past the point where even if we go 100% clean we cant repair all the damage done to various ecosystems. I wish ppl would get educated and realize these things.

Thank you Suga for another empty LDP pronouncement.

No real plan at all, the country is run on coal and there is no sign of major shift, meanwhile they are going to pollute the world's oceans with radio active waste, doesn't bear thinking about

Is Suga daydreaming ? How can you counter China while seeking benefit from her ? Is it Japanese wife model or not ?

Diet session opens; Suga says Japan to go carbon-free by 2050

The level of poverty is going to be unbearable. Good thing there are plenty of mountains to dig caves out of.

@saiaku: We're now past the point where even if we go 100% clean we cant repair all the damage done to various ecosystems.

The end is near!? The apocalyptic doomsday rhetoric from the Left is way overwrought.

"Global warming measures are no longer obstacles for economic growth, but would lead to industrial and socio-economic reforms and a major growth," he said. "We need to change our mindset."

Couldn’t agree more with the statements by Suga. I just hope he really does have the influence to make these policies a reality.

Couldn’t agree more with the statements by Suga. I just hope he really does have the influence to make these policies a reality.

Suga is out of his mind to think that without a huge increase in nuclear power a bunch of solar panels and windmills can power a modern economy. Oh wait - now I know what he has in mind.

Zero carbon emissions means zero carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. I don't think they are talking about the damage done by the pollution of products, such as plastics. The only way we can really slow down this ecological disaster we are making is to stop one thing - CONSUMERISM! But as all governments know, economies rely on consumerism and not many people seem to want to drastically change their lifestyle for a better future for our planet.

Zero carbon emissions? Really? Is that really necessary? Sounds a bit extreme to me and I'm worried about the cost.

Doing nothing also has a cost. Too many people fail to realize that pollution is a very real cost of production but it is a cost typically not priced into the product or service the production of which creates the pollution. But mark my words, pollution is a real cost and doing nothing could be more costly than going carbon neutral or carbon free.