For these several years, I could go out without having a jacket on in February and enjoy eating an ice cream even in October. How could this possible decades ago? The situation has been changing. Because of the rapid temperature rise after winter and sudden drop after summer, I am afraid that Japan will have only two seasons, summer and winter, within a decade. Looking at foreign countries, there were some severe wildfires in Canada, Hawaii, Greece and Russia in 2023. The one in Canada burned the land bigger than Hokkaido. In Libya, 12,000 people lost their lives due to extreme rain. It made the highest record of precipitation rate as 963% compared with the average in the northeast city. In Brazil, huge number of fish died and the width of a river became half due to the worst record drought (Source). The most recent climate disaster was in California, the US. As the picture shows, destructive storm hit there. Approximately 9,000 thousand households were without power with floods and landslides.

<Street in California Covered with Water on Feb. 4th, 2024>

(Source: CNN.co.jp)

The number of climate related disaster in the world became 5 times bigger in last 50 years. According to the report from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2021, global warming leads to high frequency and severity of extreme weather events.

<The Number of Climagte Related Disaster in the World>

(Source: The Nippon Foundation)

Japan Meteorological Agency disclosed the fact that the world average surface temperature of the ground and ocean from 1991 to 2020 raised 0.54 degree Celsius. This number is the highest since 1891, and the temperature rise will not stop if it continues to emit greenhouse gases.

Considering about these statements, many people must be worried to proceed decarbonization. Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, mentioned that our “global warming” already became “global boiling,” and this word encouraged decarbonization all over the world.

As the number shows, we can tell that climate change has already been happening. However, it is the real fact that decarbonization has certain connection with the climate change? What is the purpose of decarbonization?

We have an example of the forgotten environmental crisis in the past. Do you still remember the ozone layer? Destruction of this layer was found in 1970s, and it was a big global issue at that time, but it has been recovered. It is said that decarbonization is for global warming and depletion of fossil fuels. In spite of this, some places on the earth have been cooler rather than warmer. In addition, we already have other means of creating energy besides using fossil fuels.

It is already normal to take some decarbonized action even if the company is not familiar with environmental issues. Japanese companies are also eager to contribute to decarbonization, and this is not a bad thing. Though we just doubt its necessity. Don’t we have any other ways to deal with climate change?

IISIA now considers to proceed a new project that analyzes decarbonization from a different aspect. We will keep reporting the updates of the project once it launches.

Thank you for reading,

Yuki Kondo, Corporate Planning Group