While Ontario’s ambitious feed-in-tariff (FIT) policy is being put to the test by domestic and international opposition, including a challenge from Japan, Japan has just achieved a major breakthrough for its own FIT policy as it continues to recover from the tsunami and nuclear disaster this past March. Both examples will have implications for renewable [...]

Charged meaningless by some and pathetic by others, yesterday’s debate in the United Nations Security Council on the security implications of climate change disappointed the hopes of those in the policy community who, for years, sought action on climate change by the Security Council in absence of any effective multilateral agreement by the United Nations [...]

My previous article mentioned that it is now very difficult to pursue the current Japan’s energy strategies highly depending on nuclear energy because its ‘safety myth’ collapsed as a result of Chernobyl-level radioactive leak from the Fukushima nuclear plant. Further, reducing GHG emissions by 25% by 2020 seems infeasible because its global warming strategies are [...]

On June 6th, according to Jiji press, Japan is likely to abandon its mid-term GHG reduction target. On March 12th, the earthquake and Tsunami attacked the Fukushima nuclear power plant and serious radioactive leak has been taking place since then in Japan. Both electric power companies and the Japanese Government eloquently insisted on the ‘perfect [...]

Canada’s boreal forest is in the news again this week with a study released yesterday by the Pew Environment Group. But while the Pew study argues that the preservation of the forest remains a top global priority, the Canadian timber industry may see a spike in demand for wood from Japan when it begins the [...]

Article by Guest Contributor: Colleen Marie Gibson On day two of COP16, the Japanese delegation announced that it does not intend to extend the existing Kyoto protocol.  The protocol was enacted in Japan on 21 March 1994, and began its reporting period of the framework from 2008-2012. There are over 194 countries participating in the [...]

On 21 July, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced a summary of Japanese Feed in Tariffs (FITs), in which electric power companies are required to buy the electricity generated by all types of renewable sources of energy by households and businesses. FITs seek to promote the adoption of renewable energy sources by offering long-term contracts [...]

On April 1, Tokyo’s Metropolitan Government (TMG) started a cap and trade system, which was the first attempt by a metropolitan area in the world. Further, at the national level, the current administration, led by a coalition composed by the Democratic Party of Japan, the People’s New Party and the Social Democratic Party, proposes a [...]

copyright: Fukui Shinbun Almost one month has passed after Yukio Hatoyama, the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), was appointed as Prime Minister of Japan in September 16. According to a public opinion poll carried out by Yomiuri Shinbun in September 17, 75 percent of its respondents supported the ‘Hatoyama’ cabinet, the second [...]

(c)yomiuri online The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won 308 of the 480 seats though the ruling bloc of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito got only 140 seats in the Lower House election on Sunday. This is a landslide victory for DPJ, as DPJ had only 115 seats while the ruling bloc [...]