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Can we achieve both economic growth and
environmental preservation in Japan?
Takeshi Hoshino, Kentaro Kayanuma, Naotaka Maeda, Yoshifumi Miyake,
Tomoyo Kimata, Momoko Hori
August 11, 2009
Contents
1. Introduction: The Current Situation of Environmental Problem
2. Policies Adopted in Sweden
3. Is It Possible to Apply Sweden’s Policies to Japan?
4. Conclusion
5. References
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1. Introduction: The Current Situation of Environmental Problems
In recent years, environmental problems are getting more and more
widespread international attention.
Speaking of environment problems,
there are various kinds of issues included in this category.
are now facing serious energy problems.
For example, we
Fossil fuels, such as coal,
petroleum, natural gas, and their derivatives provide more than 85% of the
energy used by mankind today. Unfortunately, the reserves of those fuels
are not infinite.
Scientists predict that within the next two centuries we
will run out of those valuable energy sources. In addition, if we continue to
use fossil fuels, a large amount of carbon dioxide will be emitted into the
atmosphere, which will exacerbate global warming further in the near future.
Considering these facts, it is obvious that some effective measures must be
taken as soon as possible. To tackle these problems, Governments started
to introduce alternative energy sources.
“Alternative energy” means energy
derived from sources that do not use up natural resources or harm the
environment.
Apparently, using these alternative energy sources is the best
way to resolve energy problems.
They are actually environmentally friendly.
However, there are many serious demerits as well as a lot of merits.
From
the next paragraph, some typical examples of alternative energy will be
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shown and some merits and demerits of them will be discussed.
One example of alternative energy is solar power generation.
number of advantages.
It has a
For instance,
1) Solar power is an inexhaustible fuel source.
2) It causes no pollution.
3) Solar power generators can be installed in various places
However, there are also a lot of serious demerits. For example,
1) It is affected by conditions of the weather.
2) It requires a lot of land in order to produce lots of energy because of its low
efficiency.
3) Solar panels are fragile and require maintenance.
Wind power generation has similar advantages and disadvantages to
solar power generation.
As to its advantages,
1) The wind is inexhaustible and available all over the world.
It also causes
no pollution.
2) It can be one of the most effective alternatives to solar power generation
during the nighttime when we can’t make use of solar power.
As to its disadvantages,
1) The efficiency of wind power generation is always dependent on the
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weather conditions.
2) Some wind power generators cause noise pollution in their neighborhoods,
and building too many generators can ruin the fine views of neighboring
towns.
3) There is a possibility that some kinds of birds can be caught in the blades
of wind power generators, which causes serious problems not only with
the generators themselves but also with natural ecosystem.
There is another type of alternative energy using “biomass”.
“biomass” means plant and animal matter used to provide fuel or energy,
which is often made into bioethanol. The main advantage to using this type
of alternative energy is
1) Unlike solar and wind power generation, it is not affected by the weather
conditions.
However, on the minus side,
1) It raises the price of grain because a large amount of grain is needed to
produce a sufficient amount of bioethanol.
2) It may spread the use of genetically modified products which has unknown
effects on human beings.
As stated above, there are many types of serious drawbacks when
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introducing these alternative energy sources.
However, the drawback that
is common to all alternative energy sources is their costs.
Under the
current situation, it costs a great deal of money to build their facilities.
Moreover, the markets for these new power generating systems are still
really small and unstable. These are the reasons why the use of alternative
energies is hindered from widely spreading.
To spread the use of
alternative energies, governments have to take effective measures to deal
with these problems skillfully.
Over the past sixteen years, Sweden has succeeded in achieving both
economic growth and environmental preservation. In other words, Sweden
successfully increased its GDP considerably and reduced its emission of
carbon dioxide.
On the other hand, Japan has not increased its GDP
compared to Sweden, while the emission of carbon dioxide has risen over the
past sixteen years.
In this research paper, policies adopted in Sweden will
be mainly focused on.
We will clarify why Sweden’s policies are effective in
resolving environmental problems. We will also discuss whether such
policies are applicable to Japan.
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Solar Power Generator
Wind Power Generator
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2. Policies Adopted
Adopted in Sweden
During the late 20th century, many countries experienced great
economic growth by depending on oil. There was a strong connection between
economic growth and oil consumption, so if the economy grew by 1%, the oil
consumption also increased by 1%. But in Sweden, between 1990～2006, its
GDP grew by 44% and CO2 emission decreased by 8.7%. While in Japan, its
GDP grew by 19.3% and CO2 emission also increased by 6.3%.
How did Sweden increase GDP and reduce CO2 emission at the same time?
In this second section, we would like to focus on the environmental
preservation policies taken in Sweden that made this happen.
Sweden has 16 environmental quality objectives that are to be reached
by 2020 at the latest. The overall goal is to pass on to the next generation a
society in which the major environmental problems have been solved. This
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16 environmental quality objectives started in 1999, Reduced climate impact,
Clean air, Natural acidification only, A non-toxic environment, A protective
ozone layer, A safe radiation environment, Zero eutrophication, Flourishing
lakes and streams,
High-quality
groundwater,
A balanced marine
environment, flourishing coastal areas and archipelagoes, Thriving wetlands,
Sustainable forests, A varied agricultural landscape, A magnificent
mountain landscape, A good built environment, A rich diversity of plant and
animal life. One of the most important environmental quality objectives
focuses on the need to limit climate impact. Also Legislation plays an
important part in Swedish environmental work and an Environmental Code
went into effect in 1999. It contains a number of new provisions. “General
rules of care and consideration that everyone has to comply with in order to
protect the natural environment” and “Environmental quality standards
establishing limits for how much the natural environment can stand in
terms of maximum and minimum substance levels in soil, water and air”.
The Swedish Environmental Code also prescribes that an environmental
impact assessment must be carried out before permission can be given for an
environmentally hazardous activity. If anyone polluting someone else’s
property or spoiling it in some way may be liable for damages.
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Now, let’s check out some policies.
First, Carbon Dioxide Tax and Energy Tax introduced in 1991. These
tax considered as a part of Comprehensive tax reform. Tax reform in 1990
made Sweden to the first country that changes the object of tax, from income
to Carbon Dioxide and Energy. As a result Sweden became lowest tax
country in OECD.
G as (per liter)
classification 1
classification 2
others
paraffin (per m ^3)
LPG (per ton)
m ethane (per 1,000m ^3)
coal(per ton)
crude tallolja (per m ^3)
electric pow er (per kw h)
m unufacturing industry
northern part
other part
others
（Skr）
total am ount
Energy tax
C D tax
3.61
3.64
4.27
743
145
241
316
1,801
0.86
0.86
0.86
1,058
912
792
920
4.47
4.5
0.59
1,801
1,257
1,033
1,236
1,801
0
0.0121
0.0159
0.0185
0
0.0121
0.0159
0.0185
-
0
0.106
0.139
0.162
Another environmental preservation policy taken in Sweden is a
system called Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) system.. REC is a proof
that 1 mega-watt hour of electricity was generated from a renewable energy
source such as wind power, solar power, and biomass energy. When
electricity is genertaed from a renewable energy source, it can be divided into
two parts. One is the actual elecrtircity part and the other is the
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environmental added-value part. Environmental added-value is the value of
environmental contribution such as the reduction of oil source and CO2
emission. The environmental added-value is made into a form of certificate
and it can ce traded in the market just like a financial commodity.
In Sweden, the user of electiciry is forced to use a certain amount of
electricity generated from a renewable energy source. Even if the user
doesn’t have its own electric power facilities, they can buy the certificates
and use it as a proof of contribution to the environment. This system is
effective to the prevalence of renewable energy power generation because it
creates an incentive for the power generating companies to produce from
renewable energy source. The power generating companies can receive REC
equal to the amount of electricity generated from renewable energy source.
REC can be sold in the market or it can be sold to the government so the
power generating compnaies can gain additional profit by generating
electricity from renewable energy source. There is a merit for the buyer of
the REC also. Because buying REC can be counted as a environmental
contribution, companies can buy REC and create a clean image of itself.
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Nowadays, consumers are more sensitive to enivronmental problems so
creating a clean image is important for the companies. By this REC system,
Sweden is seeking to increase the amount of renewable eneregy usage from
what was 7.4% in 2003 to about 17% by 2010.
Another important aspect of Sweden’s environmental preservation
policy is that in Sweden, the municipal organizations are very aggressive
and active in environmental preservation. For example, there is a city called
Vaxjo and the goal of the city is to achieve zero fossil fuel usage. The city of
Vaxjo, with its plenty of forest resources, are trying to achieve this goal by
switching from fossil fuel to biomass energy. The prevalence of the use of
biomass energy is encouraged by what is called a cogeneration system.
Cogeneration sysytem is a system which uses one power plant to produce
both electricity and useful heat. By producing electricity and useful heat
from the same power plant, it contributes to energy saving. In Sweden,
cogeneration power stations generate electricity from biomass and the heat
produced during this process is used for air heating. In Vaxjo, 90% of the
apartments and 20% of the houses are using heat produced by biomass
energy. The reason why Vaxjo is active in environmental preservation is
because of the city’s location. The city of Vaxjo suurounds a big lake and
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people’s lives have a close linkage with the lake. In the 1960s, Vaxjo
experienced a pollution problem of the lake and since this problem, people of
Vaxjo started to take interest in environmental preservation. This change in
people’s interest towards environment lead to Sweden’s advance in
environmental preservation in the 1990s.
3. Is It Possible to Apply Sweden’
Sweden’s Policies to Japan?
Now, our next step is whether we can apply Sweden’s policy to Japan or
not. So before we give any conclusion we would like to give some differences
between the two countries. First, the fundamental dissimilarity is the
population and the industry which the two countries are engaged in. We can
assume that the population was the main catalyst for Sweden’s
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environmental policy to realize. Compared to Japan, the population of
Sweden is a lot smaller. Japan has the population of 126million whereas
Sweden is 88.5 thousand. Moreover, Sweden has approximately 1.2 times of
land area than Japan and 80 percent of it is covered with forests, mountains,
rivers and plains. With the rich environment of Sweden and its moderate
climate, greenery, medium population we have concluded that it is quite
difficult to implement the exact same policy to Japan. However, we can
modify the policy so that it fits our country and refer to Sweden’s plan as an
example and frame a system of our own. Below are some of the points that
we thought should be considered.
・ The existence of laws and regulations→ a certain degree of regulations is
necessary. However, too much regulation causes the people to complain,
so we need to make some kind of incentive for the consumers. For
example Sweden implemented a strategy where one can use the parking
space in a certain city for free if one purchases an eco-friendly car.
・
The awareness of not only companies but also individuals→ companies
are taking positive attitudes towards the preservation of the
environment. But how can we enhance the awareness of individuals?
・
Is it possible to raise GDP and at the same time reduce the amount of
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CO2 like as in Sweden?
In 2002, WSSD (World Summit on Sustainable Development) was held in
Johannesburg, South Africa. There a now term was invented. “W.E.H.A.B”
stands for Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture, Biodiversity.
This graph shows the comparison of Sweden and Japan.
W.E.H.A.B
Water
Sweden
Japan
the amount of water used daily : the amount of water used daily:
320 liters per person per day
210liters
per person per day
210
Energy
eco-friendly electricity
Eco-friendly electricity
46%
46
about9
9％
The ratio of garbage recycled in a The ratio of garbage recycled in
Health
household
a household
96％
96
about20
20％
20 (19,6%)
Agriculture Organic farms
Organic farms
about20
20％
20
below 1%
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Biodiversity Amount of CO2
Amount of CO2
about an 8％ increase
9％ decrease
There are two parts where modification is needed to make the Sweden’s
strategy viable to ours.
1) The first point is that compared to Sweden our country is not that
conscious of the environment. Recently, there are expansions of measures
against environmental preservation among companies and enterprises.
However, the awareness among individuals is still very low. In Sweden,
environmental studies are taught at school from a low age. This might be the
major difference between us and Sweden. We should adopt environmental
studies in order to reform our consciousness.
2) The second point is that in Japan environmental policies aren’t carried out
actively and laws to maintenance is not prepared. We consider this a critical
point. In Sweden there are carbon tax, energy tax, and a system of promoting
recycling which sells plastic bottles and cans whose prices are added with the
deposit so that people will collect more of it. Moreover, in 1999 a law called
the code of environment was enforced. This law regulates any activity which
may harm the environment whether the object is an enterprise or an
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individual. When harm is done, that person or company needs to pay a
certain amount of money. On the other hand, Japan does not have any laws
and regulations ever similar to that of Sweden’s. Carbon tax was once
introduced temporarily but it is not in practice currently. We strongly
recommend carbon tax. From it we can expect economical effect like the
decrease of CO2 emission and creating a motive to make eco-friendly devices.
Generally. By increasing the price of tax the demand for fossil fuel will
decline, and needless to say the amount of fossil fuel will decrease.
Furthermore, motivation of making eco-friendly technology will become high.
What’s more, investment towards this technology will create employment
and lead to suppressing unemployment rate. This is actually proved in
Sweden. The circumstances between Sweden and Japan are quite different
so a large-scaled policy or regulations might be difficult, but we need to
introduce a new policy with a certain power to protect our environment. As
written above, we have understood that our awareness and policies towards
the environment is far from adequate. It is vital for Japan to learn from
Sweden and strengthen our country.
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4..
4.. Conclusion
The Japanese Government has recently decided to introduce “Feed-in
Tariff”, which means a kind of an incentive structure to encourage the
adoption of renewable energy through government legislation. Thanks to the
subsidies from the Government, from January to March in 2009, they
successfully installed many solar power generators equivalent to half of all
solar power generators which were installed last year. In fact, the Japanese
Government has been making efforts to resolve environmental problems.
However, it doesn’t seem like all Japanese companies are taking part in
environmental protection activities. What is the difference between Sweden
and Japan?
In Japan, “RPS(Renewable Portfolio Standard) Law” was enforced in
2003, whose aim is to force electric power suppliers to use a certain amount
of electricity generated from renewable energy sources. However, under the
current situation, this law hasn’t been applied to the public sector. The
Government is concerned that it might raise public backlashes.
On the other hand, Sweden introduced environmental taxes in 1990,
such as carbon dioxide tax and sulfur tax. In addition, RPS Law has also
been applied to the private sector. Instead, the Swedish Government takes
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some effective measures to prevent backlashes. For example, the Swedish
Government has reduced corporate income tax.
Compared to Japanese companies, Swedish companies are well aware
that they are part of environmental problems. As I mentioned before, the
Japanese Government are also taking some subsidy measures to install as
many solar power generators as possible. However, most Japanese
companies forget that its resources come from taxes they are paying, which
makes them indifferent to environmental protection activities.
As we mentioned above, the awareness towards the environment is
very low. So, we suggest a plan called the green tax strategy which puts an
emphasis on the environment. We consider making full use of the tax system
to increase environmental investment is vital. Moreover, in the post Kyoto
Protocol Japan must reduce 15% of the amount of CO2 emitted compared to
that of 2005 by 2020 so we need to make some kind of move anyhow. We
would like to make two kinds of environmental tax plans.
1) International cooperation tax system. This system is a tax system which is
organized under an international agreement to standardize the tax rate.
Global Warming is no longer one country’s problem so we think it is
appropriate to impose a tax system on a global standard. If we impose this
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tax only on domestic terms, there is fear where companies will go abroad to
move their base and this might lead to a decrease in international
competition. However, we can prevent this from happening if we unite the
tax rate. Moreover we can expect an announce effect by this global scaled
policy. When people all over the world acknowledge this we can hope for a
change in their lifestyles and work styles. But we can guess that emerging
countries will most likely resist so it is important for the industrialized
countries to take the lead and after is spreads through there, we can start
expanding the policy to the emerging countries.
2) Recycle promoting tax. Literally, this tax is to promote and spread
recycling. For example, imposing tax in proportion to things which recycling
is not that advanced like toilet paper, cans, and plastic bottles. By doing this,
the number of items to recycle will increase and companies will make an
effort to collect aluminum and metal scrap. For a few years after introducing
this system it is better to set the tax rate low and then gradually increasing
it considering the fact that companies need time to adjust. Furthermore, to
lessen the burden against enterprises and companies, we think it is better to
introduce this system at a limited period at first.
The money collected with this tax system will be used to protect the
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environment. For example, for the money needed to set up solar panels or
any subsidization vital for energy saving equipments. Also it can be used for
planting trees in cities and educating children about the environment. Ever
since the industrial revolution, we have had nothing but progress. It is no
longer possible for humans to lower their lifestyles to protect the
environment. In other words, unless the government intervenes in the
market and introduces new systems compulsorily, environmental problems
will become more and more severe until it is really late to do anything.
5. References
・”Establishing Guidelines for Carbon Offsetting in Japan” Ministry of the
Environment
・”The Clean Tech Revolution: Discover the Top Trends, Technologies and
Companies to Watch” Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder
・http://www.scb.se/Pages/TableAndChart____24657.aspx
・http://www.scb.se/Pages/TableAndChart____24663.aspx
・http://www4.famille.ne.jp/~oneworld/index.html
・http://web.comhem.se/kawaraban/energi1.htm
・http://www.jri.co.jp/JRR/1998/04/ot-sweden.html
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・http://www.neting.or.jp/eco/kanbun/kaze/0508.html
・http://www.geocities.co.jp/NatureLand/5908/swedish_biomas.html
・http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/global_environment/report/chapter6.pdf#
search='
・http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/area/SWEDEN/data.html
・http://www10.ocn.ne.jp/~rejse/Sweden.htm
・http://www.eco-online.org/sweden/2009/04/post_3.php
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