Japan to revise downward greenhouse gas cut plan

The Japanese government plans to revise sharply downward its greenhouse gas reduction target because of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, public broadcaster NHK reported Thursday. The government now plans to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions by 3.8 percent from the volume in 2005 by 2020, and the decision will be submitted to a UN climate change convention that opens on Monday in Poland, NHK said. That would effectively be an increase of about 3 percent from 1990, a sharp reverse from the previous plan set by the former government. The setback is expected to come under international criticism. The move comes after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed relevant ministers in January to work out a new target from scratch. In 2009, the Democrats-led administration set a reduction target at 25 percent from 1990 by 2020. But the current administration found it difficult to meet that target with all the nuclear reactors still offline in the wake of the Fukushima radiation crisis that was caused by a magnitude-9.0 quake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011. The government plans to formally approve the revision next week and Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara will present the new target at the 12-day UN conference, according to the report. Government officials said the calculation was based on a simulation in which the country further promotes energy-saving efforts and uses more renewable energy sources while all the reactors in Japan remain offline. The officials also said the government will also take into account carbon dioxide absorption by the country's forests.