Japan's power companies are turning to thermal power to compensate for their offline nuclear plants that have pushed up carbon dioxide emissions greatly contributing to global warming.
Nine Japanese power companies say their generators released a combined 430 million tons of CO2 in the 12 months ending June 2012, which was 17 percent more than that of last year, Japanese media reported on Monday.
Only two of Japan's 50 functional nuclear reactors are currently online. The government and power companies are facing strong public opposition to restart of the reactors in the wake of last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster that displaced tens of thousands of residents in the Fukushima prefecture following radiation from a tsunami-wrecked nuclear power plant of the Tokyo Electrical Power Company (TEPCO).
But the emissions are making it difficult for power firms to meet their CO2 reduction targets and they have set a new deadline of March, 2013 to cut emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels.
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Political News
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.