Koizumi was speaking on the eve of a United Nations climate summit in New York where activists plan to float a blimp showing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emerging from a bucket of coal to protest Japan's pans to build new coal-fired power plants. On tackling such a big-scale issue like climate change
NEW YORK - Japan's new environment minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, pledged on Sunday to mobilise young people to push his coal-dependent country towards a low-carbon future by making the fight against climate change"sexy" and"fun."
"We are committed to realising a decarbonised society, and we are ready to contribute as a more powerful country in the fight against climate change," he said. The son of charismatic former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, he is regularly rated by voters as the lawmaker they would most like to see in the top job when Abe steps down.
"It behooves the rest of the world to come together to support Japan, as well as the other Asian countries, to move beyond coal," said Figueres, a Costa Rican diplomat who now leads Mission 2020, a campaign to accelerate climate action. Guterres has also urged governments not to build any new coal power plants after 2020 - setting him at odds with Japan, which is the only G7 country to be adding coal-fired power generation capacity. Japan's government and banks also play an important role in financing new coal plants elsewhere in Asia.
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