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The buried lede from that article: > But Japan relies on coal for more than a third of its power generation needs. And while older coal plants will start retir

The buried lede from that article: > But Japan relies on coal for more than a third of its power generation needs. And while older coal plants will start retiring, eventually reducing overall coal dependency, the country still expects to meet more than a quarter of its electricity needs from coal in 2030. So this decade Japan's reliance on coal power will roughly drop from 33% to 25%. To provide even more context, Japan's energy consumption has been falling since before the 2011 disaster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Japan_energy_and_GDP.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Japan_energy_and_GDP.svg

raxxorrax 6y ago
> Japan's energy consumption has been falling since before the 2011 disaster That is really surprising. Can this be traced back to a cause. Some industry that closed down or did appliances and lighting got that more efficient?
- dane-pgp 6y ago
  It's worth pointing out that the trend is seen not just in Japan but in other major developed economies too: https://d33wubrfki0l68.cloudfront.net/0784d9d63336606d4ca02540d22b765f05709d5f/a5204/exports/energy-use-per-capita_v1_850x600.svg https://d33wubrfki0l68.cloudfront.net/0784d9d63336606d4ca025... The usual explanation given is that these countries have outsourced their energy-intensive industries to other countries that have a corresponding increase in energy use, but there is reason to be optimistic even when factoring in "imported emissions" of CO2, in the UK, for example: "While UK carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions peaked in 1972, once we consider imported emissions – such as when the UK imports products that are manufactured abroad – UK emissions peaked in 2007."[0] Of course, peaking emissions isn't the same as peaking energy usage, but it does assuage some of the concerns about outsourcing our manufacturing to countries with "dirtier" energy like China. [0] https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/compendium/economicreview/october2019/thedecouplingofeconomicgrowthfromcarbonemissionsukevidence https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoracco...

raxxorrax 6y ago

> Japan's energy consumption has been falling since before the 2011 disaster That is really surprising. Can this be traced back to a cause. Some industry that closed down or did appliances and lighting got that more efficient?

dane-pgp 6y ago
It's worth pointing out that the trend is seen not just in Japan but in other major developed economies too: https://d33wubrfki0l68.cloudfront.net/0784d9d63336606d4ca02540d22b765f05709d5f/a5204/exports/energy-use-per-capita_v1_850x600.svg https://d33wubrfki0l68.cloudfront.net/0784d9d63336606d4ca025... The usual explanation given is that these countries have outsourced their energy-intensive industries to other countries that have a corresponding increase in energy use, but there is reason to be optimistic even when factoring in "imported emissions" of CO2, in the UK, for example: "While UK carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions peaked in 1972, once we consider imported emissions – such as when the UK imports products that are manufactured abroad – UK emissions peaked in 2007."[0] Of course, peaking emissions isn't the same as peaking energy usage, but it does assuage some of the concerns about outsourcing our manufacturing to countries with "dirtier" energy like China. [0] https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/compendium/economicreview/october2019/thedecouplingofeconomicgrowthfromcarbonemissionsukevidence https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoracco...