Japan Scales Back CO2 Emissions Goal, Citing Fukushima Nuclear Woes

Japan's government has lowered its goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, pointing to the shutdown of the nuclear energy program it had banked on to meet its original target of lowering emissions to 25 percent of the 1990s levels.

The move is being called a setback, and a conspicuous one at that, as representatives from nearly 200 nations around the world meet this week in Warsaw to discuss global solutions to the threat of climate change.

Japan's revised emissions target calls for a 3.8 percent reduction by 2020, the revised figure represents a 3 percent increase of greenhouse gas emissions compared to Japan's 1990s levels.

Japanese officials said that in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear incident it is now impossible to meet its original goal of 25 percent emission reductions. Prior to the nuclear disaster, the country generated 30 percent of its energy from nuclear power. Today, the country's nuclear energy network has effectively been switched off.

"We're down to zero nuclear; anyone doing the math will find that target impossible now," Japan's environment minister Nobuteru Ishihara said in Tokyo after announcing the new target, according to The New York Times. Ishihara also reportedly said the original goal was "unrealistic in the first place."

"The current government seeks economic growth while doing our best to meet emissions targets," he said, according to the Times.

Japan is the world's fifth-largest carbon dioxide emitter, behind China, the US, India and Russia. Its revised CO2 emissions goal reflects the nation's continuing dependence on fossil fuels.

Given the size of its climate impact, Kelly Dent, climate change spokeswoman at UK nonprofit group Oxfam, said Japan should be among the leaders in CO2 emission reductions.

"As one of the world's largest CO2 emitters, Japan has a responsibility to help lead the world in reducing emissions," Dent said, according to Bloomberg News. "Instead their actions may well further erode trust in current negotiations, which must deliver a global climate deal in 2015."