Medium: Newspaper
Vehicle: The New York Times
Reporter: Hiroko Tabuchi
Date: February 4, 2020
Headline: Japan Is Building Coal-Fired Plants, Despite the Climate Risks
Company Involved: Tokyo Electric
The Story
Japanese residents are suing their government after it approved the construction of 22 coal-burning plants at 17 sites across the country in the next 5 years without completing a full environmental assessment.
Coal is one of the biggest sources of carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide gas traps the sun’s rays in the atmosphere, causing the temperature of the planet to increase in a phenomenon we call Global Warming. These new coal plants would emit almost as much carbon dioxide as all the passenger cars in the United States and would surely degrade local air quality and endanger local communities by contributing to climate change.
Japan is scheduled to host the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo which has been advertised as one of the greenest Olympic Games ever. Organizers said all the electricity would be coming from renewable sources, but these new developments tell us the opposite.
Every other developed economy in the world is trying to eliminate the use of coal as a power source, but Japan still relies on coal for more than 1/3 of its power needs in order to reduce foreign oil imports. The country also had to close its nuclear power program when the Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred in 2011, leaving them with limited energy sources.
The construction is planned at the site of an old oil-powered power plant that shut down two years before the Fukushima disaster. The company behind the oil and nuclear plants is the same company that is trying to build these coal-powered plants – Tokyo Electric. This electric company convinced the Japanese government that no environmental review was needed since it was going on land that had previously held an oil power station, which is why so many citizens are fighting back.
Despite clear evidence that the global temperature is rising in Japan where fishermen have felt the water get warmer and seen a change in the fish population, and a heatwave in 2018 killed more than 1,000 people, the Japanese government shows no sign of ending their coal usage.
My Thoughts
Let me begin by saying this article was featured on the front page, and rightfully so.
The overall coverage of this news is extremely negative. It’s evident through both the tone of the story and the actual events. Since the actions of Tokyo Electric are causing direct harm, people are coming forward to fight against them, painting them as the villain.
In the end, at least there was something/someone to root for – the activists who are speaking out. That’s what made the story so powerful; it wasn’t just about the coal-fired plants, it was about the empowerment of a people to fight for their basic rights to clean air and prosperous futures for themselves and their children.
It’s hard to see Tokyo Electric as anything but a villain when they’re purposely breaking promises with this new project.
Under the Paris accord, Japan committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 26% by 2030. And on top of that, they promised a “green” Olympic Games, an event which was almost moved to a city 700 miles north of Tokyo because the temperatures can get so hot there; a situation that could only be made worse by the addition of coal-burning power plants.
Clearly, the idea of coal-burning power plants missed a huge mark with the public because climate change is a global issue. However, I can see the other side of the story. As someone who grew up in a country that benefitted from the coal industry, who am I to tell another country they can’t use those same technologies?
Even so, coal power is not what the people of Japan want. In order for Japan to grow and become a more powerful nation, they must uphold the values that are important to the majority. When it comes to environmental issues it’s important to look at the big picture. Tokyo Electric had two failed power projects in the past, so what made them think burning coal was the way to redeem themselves?
One of my professors always told us that the PR director should be the “right-hand” to the CEO of a company. PR people are supposed to guide companies in a direction that will help them remain in a favorable light. If I was the PR director for Tokyo Electric, I would have tried my best to talk them into building renewable energy sources because research has shown that it could become more cost-effective as soon as 2025 and it would allow Japan to jump to the top of the list for countries who are actively fighting climate change.
But at the end of the day, if the project was non-negotiable and I was the PR director for Tokyo Electric, I would have at least told them to wait until after the Olympics so they could live up to their promise of renewable energy sources for the Games. Plus, all eyes are on Japan in the months leading up to the Summer Olympics and burning coal isn’t going to generate good press, so why bring it up at all?
To recover, I recommend that they halt all construction until the proper environmental assessments can be completed. This will likely prove the plant will be harmful to people and the government will hopefully prevent further use of coal. This would be the perfect excuse to invest in lots of renewable energy sources right before the “greenest Olympic Games ever.”