Global Warming
Alternatives held a regular meeting last year.
This memo is its round-up which outlines our position on the global warming
issue.
The uncertainties and irreversibilities of global warming.
The global warming mechanism has not been fully understood
This uncertainty allows scholars to have still stuck to their belif
that global warming is unlikely to take place
in the light of the ocean's sinking role and so forth.
However,
it is wise to reduce greenhouse gas emmisions to the level
which to be able to prevent such climate-chang-triggered catastrophes
as a large-scaled sea-level rise, flood, desertification, etc.
Because this climate change may incur enourmous costs including a deal
toll
(although human sacrifices cannot be exactly measured in the monetary unit).
In other words,
if the state of our precious earth is at stake,
the risks can be so high and the costs of corretive actions so great,
that prevention is better and cheaper than cure.
Thus
anticipatory and precautionary approaches are required
when we deal with uncertainities and irreversibilities
which may cause a dire consequence.
Greenhouse gas reduction rate
There are three possible approaches to determining a country's green gas
reduction rate:
1. A deductive approach--
A global reduction rate is able to be estimated
from the expected earth's carrying capacity,
then, the global rate will be assigned to each country
in proportion to the scale of its GDP in the light of international equity;
2. An inductive approach--
The reduction rate of each country can be induced
from its socio-political condition, and then a global rate can be computed;
and,
3. A combination of the two completely different approaches.
Alternatives' mission is to foster a sustainable society in Japan.
So, we would advocatethe duductive approach.
Possible Solutions to slowing down the rate of global warming to the level
of
expected carrying capacity of the earth.
Alternatives proposes the following comprehensive approach
in order to make Japanese society more sustainable.
The
role of international institutions
1.To disseminate up-to-date,
correct information about the global warming mechanism
and the expected earth'scarrying capacity.
2.To set up a 'Green World Bank'
that would enable high-income countries
to buy and trade emission credits to provide aneconomic incentive
to low-income countries for the participation of a greenhouse gas
emissions reduction scheme.
The role of the Japanese government
1. To provide financial and human resources to the international institutions
to enable them to step up their efforts.
2. To establish a socail system or a framework,
as it usually limitsthe number of options available
in determining production and cosumption patterns,
which helps society movetowards sustainablitiy.
For example,
enivornmental degradation results from 'market failure' or
the existence of externalities;
therefore, if the current accountingsystems are changed to ones that
account for the true cost or the full fife-cycle costs of a product or
service,
the systems encourage producers to make goods that are more durable,
more easily disassembled for recycling or reuse, or bio-degradable.
Another example is that Swiss Bank is developing methods of assessing the
Eco-efficiency rate and uses the assessment in providing loans.
Hence, a better-rated company can not only geta loan from a bank,
but also get in on better tems.
Thanks to the enactment of the Basic Environmental Law of 1993,
Japan has now the greatest opportunity to shift its future path
from unsustainablity to sustainability.
However,the law stipulates an abstract baseline,
so that more specific laws should be enacted,
in order to promote design for sustainable production and consumption.
To do this, the following comprehensive approach is prerequisite to the
eastablishment of a susutainable society in Japan;
3. To set an important precedent for the establishment of a law that controls
the aggregated emissions of each global-environmental-problem-iduced gasses
in Japan becauseitis proved and substantiated that only economic incentives
and disincentives arenot sufficient for the achievement of a sustaibale
society;
4. To shift Japan's future path from unsustaibale production and consumption
to sustainable one by using the power of market mechanism in the form of
subsidies, bounties, charges and taxation; and
5. To incorporate environmental education into required subjects
in the compulsory education years.
The role of Japan's municipal governments
1.To initiate sound environmental policies in partnership
with local environmental NGOs.
2.To set a more stringent environmental ordinance than
the Japanese government's environmental law if the law
does not meet local people's demand as municipal government did
in the early 1970s.
The role of Japanese corporations
To incorporate Industrial Ecology into a company's strategy.
The role of Japanese citizens
Since the implication of the global warming issue
calls for a structural change in Japanese society,
Japanese citizens' involvement in decision-making processes of public
policy
is a must because any public entity is not willing to make a policy which
will undermine its interest.
To make such an involvement possible, the following trend should be set
towards
allocating some protion of your valauble time to environmental NGO's activities
for your own children's sake and towards fostering environmental NGOs
which are trying to disseminate an instrumental advocacy to ordinary people.
This trend will enable environmental NGOs to get a true partnership with
municipal government or the Japanese government.
We need your response to improve on the contents of this page
K.Nihei alt97@yahoo.co.jp 31/01/98