Japan Inc is Seeing Green But Not Going Green

[news]

Japan Inc is Seeing Green But Not Going Green
By Mary-Lynn Cesar for Kapitall

Turns out the Japanese economy actually has some great news. According to figures released by the Cabinet Office on Monday, GDP grew at an annualized rate of 3.9 percent in the first quarter of the year due to increased business investment. The previously released data pegged January to March economic growth at 2.4 percent .

Capital spending far exceeded the 0.4 percent preliminary estimate, increasing by 2.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2014. Furthermore, thanks to a weak yen, several Japanese manufacturers are moving production from China and other areas back to Japan. Canon  (CAJ), Panasonic, Sharp and TDK have all returned some of their overseas production since the beginning of the year. 

The upward revision to GDP was unexpected and welcome just like Japan's Sunday  statement at the Group of Seven (G7) summit that it is open to the group setting a carbon emissions target. Back in May, government officials said Japan, currently ranked fifth in the world for greenhouse gas emissions, was considering a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent from 2013 levels. Fiscal 2013 was Japan's  second-worst year of greenhouse gas emissions, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was expected to make a formal target reduction-for Japan not the entire group, hence the surprise-announcement at the G7 summit. 

However, sources  tell The Canadian Press  that both Japan and Canada prevented the inclusion of any strict greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in the G7 climate change pledge. Instead, the G7  agreed  to having a no-carbon economy by 2100, which will decidedly not help get the Earth off of its  irreversible path  of climate-change induced havoc. 

While the Japanese government has yet to embrace an ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan, several Japanese companies have. Below is a list of Japanese firms that made CDP's 2014 Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI) . The CDLI consists of two scores: a performance score and a disclosure score. The performance score measures a company's action in regards to monitoring its carbon footprint and reducing carbon emissions while the disclosure score evaluates the comprehensiveness of company's response to the CDP's questionnaire.

Japan Inc is Seeing Green But Not Going Green
By Mary-Lynn Cesar for Kapitall

Turns out the Japanese economy actually has some great news. According to figures released by the Cabinet Office on Monday, GDP grew at an annualized rate of 3.9 percent in the first quarter of the year due to increased business investment. The previously released data pegged January to March economic growth at 2.4 percent .

Capital spending far exceeded the 0.4 percent preliminary estimate, increasing by 2.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2014. Furthermore, thanks to a weak yen, several Japanese manufacturers are moving production from China and other areas back to Japan. Canon  (CAJ), Panasonic, Sharp and TDK have all returned some of their overseas production since the beginning of the year. 

The upward revision to GDP was unexpected and welcome just like Japan's Sunday  statement at the Group of Seven (G7) summit that it is open to the group setting a carbon emissions target. Back in May, government officials said Japan, currently ranked fifth in the world for greenhouse gas emissions, was considering a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent from 2013 levels. Fiscal 2013 was Japan's  second-worst year of greenhouse gas emissions, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was expected to make a formal target reduction-for Japan not the entire group, hence the surprise-announcement at the G7 summit. 

However, sources  tell The Canadian Press  that both Japan and Canada prevented the inclusion of any strict greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in the G7 climate change pledge. Instead, the G7  agreed  to having a no-carbon economy by 2100, which will decidedly not help get the Earth off of its  irreversible path  of climate-change induced havoc. 

While the Japanese government has yet to embrace an ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan, several Japanese companies have. Below is a list of Japanese firms that made CDP's 2014 Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI) . The CDLI consists of two scores: a performance score and a disclosure score. The performance score measures a company's action in regards to monitoring its carbon footprint and reducing carbon emissions while the disclosure score evaluates the comprehensiveness of company's response to the CDP's questionnaire.

[Author]

June 11, 2015 at 11:40 AM