Keidanren
Today, Prime Minister Suga laid out his strong policies regarding issues such as balancing COVID-19 countermeasures with economic activity, realizing a digital society, creating a green society, and vitalizing the local economy. We strongly hope the administration to carry out these policies under the Prime Minister's strong leadership, with a sense of speed and without being constrained by precedents.
Particularly with respect to climate change policy, the Prime Minister declared to aim towards carbon neutrality by 2050 (net zero CO2 emissions).
There is a growing sense of emergency regarding climate change in the international community due to intensifying natural disasters worldwide. Given this situation, we highly appreciate the admirable decision by the Prime Minister to propose this very ambitious goal that is consistent with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement — the goal that the world is pursing efforts to achieve —, which will clearly establish Japan's position going forward towards realizing a sustainable society.
It goes without saying that achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is a very difficult challenge. To balance this with economic growth, the development and dissemination of innovative technologies — in other words, innovation — is indispensable. This will lead to the strengthening of Japan's industrial competitiveness. Thus, it is extremely important to position the generation of innovation contributing to the transition toward a decarbonized society as a national strategy, and thereby enable public and private actors to work together to further strengthen and accelerate bold efforts.
Keidanren will more boldly take up the challenge of the early achievement of a decarbonized society through innovation by making use of our "Challenge Zero" initiative and other measures.