Today I would like to report on two topics. The first is the administrative disposition announced today with regard to data falsification and other issues, as well as a summary of today’s Trust Restoration Committee meeting. The second is electric power industry proposals with regard to post-Kyoto Protocol global warming prevention measures.
First of all, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry today announced administrative disposition and gave instructions to the presidents of 12 electric power companies regarding the series of instances of data falsification and other issues. In addition, the relevant Regional Development Bureaus of the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport also handed down their dispositions to each of the companies.
The Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry instructed the companies to make a fresh start in an effort to gain the trust of the nation’s citizens, and to be thoroughly aware of their responsibilities. He also instructed us to strictly prevent recurrence by implementing measures at each company that are unforgiving of dishonesty, and to never again engage in data falsification or cover-ups.
In addition, today’s meeting of the FEPC Trust Restoration Committee was attended by the director of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, who at the start of the meeting said that no time was more important to the promotion of nuclear power than the present, and that the presidents of each of the electric power companies should take the lead in visiting the areas in which nuclear facilities are situated, and focus all their efforts on regaining the trust of area residents.
The dispositions and instructions were taken very seriously at today’s committee meeting, and it was again confirmed that executive management would take the lead in preventing recurrence and regaining the trust of area residents and society at large.
Attendees at today’s committee meeting also discussed measures to be implemented on an industry-wide basis in the light of the Recurrence Prevention Measures submitted to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency by each of the companies on the 6th of this month.
Specific discussions were held on how to make more active use of NUCIA, the Nuclear Information Archives maintained by the Japan Nuclear Technology Institute, as a means of sharing quality assurance information with all concerned
parties, including manufacturers.
As a result of these discussions, and reflecting on the fact that registration of information has not always been sufficient or rigorously implemented in the past, the committee decided to expand the scope of information that should be registered and to clarify registration criteria to improve the quality of information and enable the sharing and utilization of data relating to failures.
In addition, since the opinions and evaluations of third parties are essential if trust restoration activities at each of the companies are to be effective, the committee decided to ask the Japan Nuclear Technology Institute and other third-party organizations to evaluate the nuclear safety culture and organizational climate at each of the companies, and to invite experts to share their ideas and exchange opinions on quality assurance and other subjects.
At the FEPC, we will continue to hold Trust Restoration Committee meetings and consider further recurrence prevention measures that can be implemented on a federation-wide basis. We also plan to review individual company recurrence prevention measures and carry out other activities.
I would now like to report on electric power industry proposals that were drafted at this morning’s General Policy Committee meeting for post-Kyoto Protocol global warming prevention measures.
At home and abroad, deliberations have begun on the appropriate framework to adopt to combat global warming after 2013, when the initial Kyoto Protocol commitments end.
As members of the electric power industry, we believe this is a very important period in the process of choosing a framework for future global warming countermeasures, and we have developed some proposals that we wish to present to the nation.
There are three main points to the proposals. The first is that a post-2013 framework should be developed that will allow for the participation of all nations, including the United States, China, and India. As you know, the current Kyoto Protocol covers only about 30% of the world’s CO2 emissions because the largest CO2 producing nation, the United States, does not participate in the Protocol, and China and India are exempted from reduction requirements. We therefore sincerely hope that a framework will be developed that will be effective in reducing CO2 emissions on a truly global scale.
The second point is that we would like internationally equitable targets to be set. The Kyoto Protocol defines targets on the basis of emission reductions achieved since the baseline year. In Japan’s case, however, we had aggressively adopted energy conservation measures far in advance of the baseline year, yet it cannot be said that these efforts have been taken into consideration.
We therefore believe that post-Kyoto, an index that reflects actual CO emission-reduction effectiveness should be employed. An energy efficiency index for each sector, for example, would enable the thermal efficiency of thermal power generating facilities to be more fairly and accurately assessed.
Our third and final point is that the general public should also be involved. If measures to prevent global warming are to be truly successful, they will require not only the cooperation of industry, but also a change in the awareness and actions of every citizen.
The electric power industry is already promoting energy conservation and household “environmental accounting” practices, and is also conducting environmental energy education activities. In the future, we would also like to see measures similar to the “Energy-Saving” labels placed on electric appliances and “Cool Biz” program implemented, so that it will be easier for individual citizens to make environmentally responsible choices.
These are the points we, as members of industry, wish to propose that the government keep in mind as it conducts international negotiations to develop a truly effective framework for the future of our nation.
