Download Japan`s efforts to fight global warming have flagged in recent years

Japan must go green
A panel (e.g. government panel)
Degrees Celsius
Greenhouse gas
Drought
Emissions
To shift towards ~
Timely
To flag (efforts have flagged)
To take something seriously
Business-as-usual
To tackle (e.g. a problem)
Concentration (e.g. of a gas)
Carbon dioxide
Methane
Dinitrogen oxide
Unprecedented
Acidic
Hiatus
Succinctly
To stagnate
To shrink
Per capita
Edge (over another)
Stark
A carbon tax
Emissions trading
To impose (e.g. a tax)
Thermal power
Nuclear reactor
To stall
To be obsessed with ~
To take a toll on ~
To monopolize
To pay dearly for ~
Fossil fuel
Framework
Comprehension
1. What predictions for the end of the 21st century did the IPCC make?
2. What will likely be the effects of global warming?
3. What do governments need to do?
4. What has happened to Japan’s efforts to fight global warming recently?
5. What criticism does the writer make of the Abe government?
6. How much did temperature and sea level rise between 1880-2010?
7. What gases have reached very high levels in the atmosphere?
8. What is happening to the oceans, and why?
9. How certain are scientists that human activities are mainly responsible for global warming?
10. What has happened to global warming over the last 10 years?
11. What is scientists’ opinion about this?
12. What has happened to Japans efforts against global warming according to the writer?
13. What has happened to Japan’s CO2 emissions?
14. Does Japan still have the edge over other nations in terms of energy saving?
15. What has Germany managed to do?
16. What steps has Japan failed to take?
17. has japan actively promoted green energy?
18. What was Japan’s only option when the nuclear power plants were shut down?
19. What has Germany’s attitude towards nuclear power been?
20. What is one effect of Japan importing fossil fuels?
21. How do leaders in Japan tend to see measure to reduce CO2 emissions?
22. How does the writer think they should think about them?
23. Why do measures to reduce CO2 emissions actually boost the economy?
24. What measure should Japan take?
25. What does the writer urge Japan’s leaders to do?
In releasing the first part of its fifth assessment report on Sept. 27, the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change said that temperatures are likely to rise by 0.3 to 4.8 degrees Celsius and sea
levels could rise by 26 to 82 cm by the end of the 21st century compared with the latest 20 years.
The report, which follows one released in 2007, said that as greenhouse gases continue to
accumulate in the atmosphere, more heat waves, floods and droughts will take place, and sea
levels will rise as oceans warm and glaciers and ice sheets melt.
The IPCC is scheduled to release a series of four additional reports from this year to autumn of
next year, including a report on the effects of global warming on people’s lives and ecosystems.
It is clear what governments must do to prevent the disastrous effects of climate change: reduce
emissions of greenhouse gases by shifting toward greener energy sources. But the international
community has failed to adequately respond to the warnings that scientists have been making and
to take necessary actions in a timely manner.
Japan’s efforts to fight global warming have flagged in recent years. The Abe administration in
particular has done virtually nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote renewable
green energy. The Japanese government must take the latest report seriously and start taking
concrete efforts immediately. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other government leaders
concerned must change their business-as-usual outlook and become serious about tackling
climate change.
According to the report, the world’s average temperature rose by 0.85 degree Celsius between
1880 and 2012, and the world’s average sea level rose by 19 cm between 1901 and 2010. Sea
levels have likely risen by an average 3.2 millimeters per year between 1993 and 2010. It also
warned that concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and dinitrogen oxide in the atmosphere
have reached unprecedented levels in the past 800,000 years, and that because oceans absorb 30
percent of carbon dioxide attributable to human activities, they are becoming more acidic.
The report stated that scientists are 95 percent certain that human activities have been the main
cause of climate change since the mid-20th century. Although the report admitted that there has
been a hiatus in global warming in this century — slower temperature rises despite growing
emissions and the Arctic ice cap expanding by 29 percent in the past year — it stated that the
phenomenon is a natural variation that would not last.
Succinctly summarizing the message of the report, Mr. Achim Steiner, executive director of the
U.N. Environment Program (UNEP), said, “Climate change is a long-term challenge but one that
requires urgent action — not tomorrow but today and right now — given the pace and the scale
by which greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere and the rising risks of a more
than 2-degree Celsius temperature rise.”
It is regrettable that data since 1990 — the year when the IPCC released its first report — show
that Japan’s efforts to tackle global warming have stagnated. Although Japan’s economic growth
has slowed down and its population is shrinking, its emissions of carbon dioxide due to energy
use have increased by about 10 percent, resulting in an increase in the average amount of carbon
dioxide emitted per capita. Japan’s edge in energy saving over other nations has become almost
nil as Europe has caught up with Japan in its efforts to reduce CO2 emissions for every unit of
gross domestic product. In the meantime, per capita CO2 emissions in the United States have
fallen and its total emissions are rapidly decreasing.
The contrast between Japan and Germany is stark. Germany, the world’s No. 4 economy, has
managed to grow economically while greatly reducing CO2 emissions through the expansion of
green energy sources and energy savings.
Japan, meanwhile, has failed to introduce strong energy saving regulations and emissions trading,
and was slow to start imposing a carbon tax. It has also taken few steps to promote green energy.
So when Japan was forced to shut down its nuclear reactors in the wake of 3/11, it had no choice
but to expand its thermal power generation, including the burning of coal.
On May 30, 2011, following the nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1
nuclear power plant, Germany decided to abandon nuclear power within 11 years. Since then it
has accelerated the expansion of renewable energy sources and strengthened its energy saving
measures. Meanwhile, moves toward a carbonless society in Japan have stalled and its economy
is suffering from rises in the prices of imported energy resources.
Political and business leaders in Japan have failed to recognize that measures designed to reduce
CO2 emissions are an investment in the future. They are obsessed with the idea that such
measures are an economic burden. But measures to reduce CO2 emission boost international
competitiveness because they promote the efficient use of available resources and minimize the
release of industrial waste, which takes a costly toll on the environment and people’s health.
Japan must carry out the following measures in earnest: strengthen efforts to conserve energy,
expand emissions-trading and carbon-tax measures, improve the system under which major
power companies purchase electricity generated from renewable energy sources at fixed prices,
and separate electricity distribution from major power companies, which now monopolize both
electricity generation and distribution. The latter measure would help encourage entry into the
market by companies that will generate electricity from renewable resources.
Japan is now paying dearly for its lack of effort to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. Since it is
clear what Japan must do, its political leaders should stop listing reasons for doing nothing and
instead take decisive steps forward.
Only when Japan begins to take concrete actions at home can it make meaningful contributions
in the international community’s ongoing discussions on forming a new framework to fight
climate change. Talks on the content of the framework must be concluded by the end of 2015,
and the framework is scheduled to start in 2020. Japan’s political leaders must realize that little
time is left and begin to take action now.