Regarding the Nov. 17 article "New emissions goal derided as 'bad joke' at U.N. climate summit": One could also look at the "world reaction" as disingenuous. The glass is half full, not half empty, compared to the efforts of certain other OECD countries.

Japan has a coherent energy policy complete with FIT subsidies for renewable energy nationwide. Japan has high carbon taxes already, and they seem to both stabilize and deter fossil fuel use. Japan has a stellar record on reducing consumption: hybrid incentives, LEDs, etc. Japan is not just riding on everyone else's coat-tails, it is inventing and developing its own alternative energy systems.

Is there another economically developed country, outside of three or four in Europe, that has even done this much? And China is doing a bang-up job of spreading renewables, but it is also grabbing all the fossil fuels it can as fast as it can.

Factor in that Japan's whole energy apple cart has been recently overturned and one could ask, "Japan has been through hell, what is everyone else's excuse?" Aside from laziness, I mean.

Japan is the third largest economy in the world. It has replaced about 30 percent of its electrical capacity in 2.5 years or less. By itself, not by purchasing it from France. I think the rest of the world needs to lay off and stick to its own knitting a little more.

rockne o'bannon

from the japan times online

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