As Japan burns more coal, climate policies come under pressure

Tokyo

ONCE at the forefront of the fight against global warming, Japan is now facing calls from other big economies such as China to set fresh emissions targets as Tokyo increases its use of dirty coal energy to replace nuclear.

Japan is the world's fifth-biggest emitter of CO2, but has watered down emissions targets due to the shutdown of its nuclear plants after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, with utilities burning a record amount of coal for power generation. China and the United States, the world's biggest economies and polluters, as well as the European Union, have committed to new targets in the last few months. Japan now finds itself alongside India and Russia, the world's third- and fourth-biggest polluters, by not yet declaring goals.