Japan and Climate Change

08/26/202202/24/2023

Climate change is caused by the emission of greenhouse gasses produced by the burning of fossil fuels that humans do to make energy. Manufacturing adds to these greenhouse gasses, and impacts the patterns of the world that can lead to rising temperatures. These rising temperatures are evident as mass ice sheets have melted, sea levels have risen, adn acidity has increased. Overall, Japan does not have the sufficient policies in place or goals to decrease rising emissions leading to climate change, but hopefully this will be different soon.

Japan specifically is vulnerable to climate change, as they are prone to typhoons that are only made worse by the rising of oceans and increased rainfall. These typhoons are responsible for thousands of hospitalizations throughout the country and millions of destroyed homes. These typhoons have increased 50% in the past 50 years, which is very concerning. Additionally, heat waves as a result of climate change have impacted Japan’s weather, and now rainfall comes down less frequently but more heavily. Last year, 64 people were killed from a major storm that also caused significant damage to the infrastructure of many cities and towns. Snow also has reduced about 13% in depth in the past decade, which raises concerns among the population. All of this damage has major economic and social effects on Japan.

Japan has updated their commitment to addressing the devastating effects of climate change by updating their 2030 Paris agreement goal. This goal commits Japan to reduce their emissions by 46% and make efforts to meet the higher goal of 50% reduction. This is a large leap from their previous goal, which was fr 26% reduction, although it falls short in comparison to the higher goals of other nations. Part of this is that Japan has been trying to move away from financing coal overseas, and shift their funding to coal fired plants who have emission reduction goals. Let’s hpe Japan meets these goals, and in the future has the capability of raising them.

Writer: Kayley Hill

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Japan and Climate Change

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