JAPAN: Climate Change Leader?
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
4:00pm – 6:00pm @208N, 1 Devonshire Place
In 1997, Japan hosted the international meeting that produced the Kyoto Protocol, a major agreement to confront climate change. However, the country’s climate change policies have come under intense scrutiny in recent years. Japan regularly ranks toward the bottom of international climate change rankings, and critics have condemned its promotion of coal-fired power plants. Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has sought to reclaim Japanese climate change leadership, for example highlighting the issue as host of the G20 Osaka Summit. What will it take for Japan to reemerge as a climate change leader? In this panel, Professor Phillip Lipscy will provide an overview of climate change politics in Japan, explaining why Japan has struggled to reduce emissions in recent years. Mari Yoshitaka, a leading expert in environment business and environment finance who has served on numerous Japanese government policy committees, will discuss Japan’s climate resilience and energy security challenges.
Moderator:
Matthew Hoffman, Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto
Panelists:
Phillip Y. Lipscy, Associate Professor of Political Science, Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Japan, University of Toronto
Mari Yoshitaka, Chief Environmental & Social Strategist for Environmental Strategy Advisory Division at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co., Ltd.; Lecturer in the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University.
