Japan races to build new coal burning power plants, despite the climate risks

TOKYO - Just beyond the windows of Ms Satsuki Kanno's apartment overlooking Tokyo Bay, a behemoth from a bygone era will soon rise: a coal-burning power plant, part of a buildup of coal power that is unheard-of for an advanced economy.

Together the 22 power plants would emit almost as much carbon dioxide annually as all the passenger cars sold each year in the United States. The construction stands in contrast with Japan's effort to portray this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo as one of the greenest ever. Japan is already experiencing severe effects from climate change. Scientists have said that a heat wave in 2018 that killed more than 1,000 people could not have happened without climate change. Because of heat concerns, the International Olympic Committee was compelled to move the Tokyo Olympics' marathon events to a cooler city almost 1,200km north.

But Japan relies on coal for more than a third of its power generation needs. And while older coal plants will start retiring, eventually reducing overall coal dependency, the country still expects to meet more than a quarter of its electricity needs from coal in 2030. Together with natural gas and oil, fossil fuels account for about four-fifths of Japan's electricity needs, while renewable sources of energy, led by hydropower, make up about 16 per cent. Reliance on nuclear energy, which once provided up to a third of Japan's power generation, plummeted to 3 per cent in 2017.

Mr Koizumi has shied away from such explicit promises in favour of more general assurances that Japan will eventually roll back coal use."While we can't declare an exit from coal straight away," Mr Koizumi said at a briefing in Tokyo last month, the nation"had made it clear that it will move steadily toward making renewables its main source of energy."

Source: Financial Digest (financialdigest.net)

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