Japan Enacts Climate Change Adaptation Law

June 6, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's House of Councillors on Wednesday unanimously passed into law a climate change adaptation bill aimed at taking steps to ease damage from global warming.

Under the law, the central government will be obliged to set adaptation plans to deal with negative effects from global warming, such as poor crops and an increase in floods and other disasters.

In addition, local governments must strive to draw up their own adaption plans. The law will enter into force six months after the promulgation.

Adaptation plans include the construction of levees and measures to protect the agricultural sector and the health of citizens from negative effects of global warming.

The central government already has such a plan, which will be upgraded to a statutory program under the new law.

Local governments that have not set adaptation plans will be requested to speed up their compilation work.

The National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, will be tasked to analyze information on damage from global warming and provide assistance to local governments and research centers.

The law will call for reassessing the overall impact of climate change every five years or so and reflect the findings in revisions to adaptation plans, as temperatures are expected to rise further in the country. Jiji Press