ABSTRACT
Given Japan’s role as a major player in the innovation field, and its pivotal role in hosting the key UN Climate Change negotiations in Kyoto in 1997, it is perhaps worth looking at how it has approached renewable energy development. The Kyoto accord (which it ratified in 2002) requires Japan to cut greenhouse gases by 6 per cent from the 1990 level in the 2008-12 period. It will clearly be a challenge to meet this target. Japan has few indigenous energy supplies and imports the bulk of its energy.
