MOSCOW (MRC) -- Prime minister Yoshihide Suga, in an address to the Japanese parliament on Monday, said that Japan would achieve zero net carbon emissions by 2050, said Chemweek.
He also said that the government plans to make a sustainable economy a pillar of its growth strategy and put maximum effort into achieving a "green society."
Suga said that the government would focus on R&D into key technologies such as next-generation solar batteries and carbon recycling. He also pledged to reduce Japan's reliance on coal-fired energy by encouraging conservation and maximizing renewables and promoting nuclear energy.
The Japanese government in June last year adopted a long-term strategy for achieving the Paris climate accord targets, reports say. The strategy includes becoming a decarbonized society not dependent on fossil fuels and becoming carbon neutral early in the second half of the 21st century, but it does not specify a timetable for achieving the goal.
Japan has drawn criticism over its reliance on coal-fired power plants, which are substantial contributors to carbon dioxide emissions.
Japan joins other major countries and regions in pledging carbon neutrality around the middle of this century. Chinese president Xi Jinping declared in September that China would become carbon neutral by 2060. He also said that the country would reach peak greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions before 2030.
Earlier this month, the European Parliament voted to adopt a negotiating mandate that aims to write into EU legislation a goal set out in the EU Green Deal, to make climate neutrality obligatory by 2050 in the EU and its member states, and raise the EU’s target for reducing GHG emissions to 60% in 2030 compared with 1990.
As MRC informed earlier, as part of portfolio management reforms based on the Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Group’s medium-term management plan APTSIS 20, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation has concluded agreements to transfer its polymer flocculant sales business to MT AquaPolymer, Inc. and Hymo Corporation.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, September total production of unmixed PVC grew to 86,000 tonnes from 75,500 tonnes a month earlier, SayanskKhimPlast and RusVinyl increased their capacity utilisation. Overall output of polymer were 718,500 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020 versus 720,500 tonnes a year earlier, only two producers raised their production volumes, and RusVinyl cut its output.
MRC