Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change
Open Access

Abstract

This article is a part of our Japanese Government funded research project, which is to develop a comprehensive policy and legal framework for commercializing Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Japan. In November 2016, the Japanese government signed the Paris agreement. Japan is now aiming at achieving the GHG reduction target of 26% by 2030 below 2013 level. The government also targets an 80% reduction of GHG emissions by 2050. The government has acknowledged CCS can play a significant role in potentially reducing a large amount of CO2 domestically, which could reduce 7.1 billion tonnes of CO2 by 2050. This would allow the country to achieve approximately 21% of potential contribution to reduce CO2. Thus, the future CCS deployment associated with an appropriate legislative framework in Japan will create potential benefits and meet Japan�s climate policy goals. However, to date, a number of the CCS leading nations and regions have been struggling with their failures in policy design such as the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union (e.g. the lack of financial support for CCS development in the EU primarily incorporated with EU-ETS (Emission Trading Scheme). This article addresses a framework for optimizing policy instruments and will discuss the key issues of the relevant policy mix and instrument selections in order to successfully promote and regulate the future CCS industry in Japan. Throughout this study, a framework is proposed for optimizing policy instrument selections and identifying potential barriers to the relevant selection of the instruments by using the appropriate literature (see table 1). Accessing relevant literature, we have proposed a framework for optimizing a policy mix approach and have addressed the key issues for our future study.

Biography

Akihiro Nakamura is a Research Fellow at Centre for Environmental Law, Meiji University, Japan and Adjunct Researcher working with Associate Professor Kate Crowley, School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania, Australia. He completed his Graduation with PhD in Public Policy from the University of Tasmania, and has also considerable experience in these fields both in Australia and Japan. His research expertise is in the field of policy instrument analysis in relation to climate change policy.