Think the Energy Program
From the last month, I have been participating "電力の未来を考える会" which means “think the future of the energy”, a program for University students held by Mentor Diamond in Tokyo.
There is no wonder why this kind of program was organized for University students.
Since the 3.11 earthquake and the following explosions of the Fukushima nuclear power plants that brought blackouts & brownouts, there were a lot of discussions on energy in Japan.
Politicians, corporate managers, heads of the related organizations, decision makers, academics, etc. were involved in those arguments, but what they were talking with technical terms, jargons, was too difficult to understand for ordinary people - like us.
(Of course this is not applied to everyone. Some academics are putting out the information through their blog, website, Twitter or Ustream in an informative way.)
The main purpose of this 3-month-program is to get involve the University students into the discussion on energy by giving them basic knowledge and opportunity to talk to the relevant actors.
And at the end of the program, each of the participants is supposed to submit a report (提言書).
What should be discussed?
The first session was held on Sunday, October 16th at Harajuku, Tokyo.
We had guest speakers from various areas.
Mr. Itaru Yasui, emeritus professor of Tokyo University,
Mr. Akihiro Sawa, Executive of The 21st Century Public Policy Institute,
Mr. Tetsunari Iida, Manager of Institute for Sustainable Energy Politics,
and Mr. Thomas Breuer, Head of Energy Department of Green Peace.
Mr. Sawa has been working in METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) and involved in promotion of the use of the nuclear energy. On the other hand, Mr. Iida is well known as a strong supporter of the renewable energy.
It was very interesting to hear both sides of the story.
Actually, Mr. Sawa’s statement sounded rather reasonable. He pointed out that we cannot quit nuclear energy like RIGHT NOW, but what we have to do is to think the ratio of the resource of the electricity. He insisted that we should not depend on only one resource (ex. 100% natural gas) considering the ‘risk management’, and it is needed to use several resources for a stable energy supply. Considering that, he said, we should keep the nuclear energy as one of the options of our energy strategy.
It was kind of surprising because I was supporting the idea that we should STOP nuclear energy AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and shift to the renewable energy.
What hit me was that, Mr. Sawa’s point weighs the growth of the economy.
Well, many says we need electricity to keep the current economic status, but is the electricity for the economy or the human being?
If it could do harm on people and the environment yet does good to the economy, would it be justified?
I think we should discuss not only whether to go on with nuclear energy or with 100% renewable energy, but also what does Japan aims at, what kind of society we are trying to design, and how much energy will be needed to realize that.
I am looking forward to the next session coming soon, November 12 – 13.
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