Workshop Address Mr Kentaro Endo
Ladies and gentleman, distinguished guests, my name is Kentaro Endo, I am the Director of Environmental
Affairs at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), in Japan. It is my great pleasure to deliver
short remarks at the beginning of the workshop on CCS Confidence building.
First of all, I would to extend my warm welcome to all the participants coming from abroad, who have
come all the way to Tokyo to attend this meeting and as we are aware of CCS is now recognised as one of
the important mitigating options triggered by the IPCC special report on CCS published in 2005. Active
discussions are under way in forums such as the IEA and CSLF. In addition, we can see many concrete
projects both at commercial and research levels. This kind of movement is making CCS more realistic
mitigating options.
I just would like to touch upon some policy development in Japan. Since the early 1990’s METI has been
active in technology development through relevant organisations. And
more recently, last October METI
set up a committee consisting of eleven experts from industry and academia. This committee chaired by
Professor Kaya is expected to compile more comprehensive policy recommendations for CCS promotion
from a wider viewpoint. These recommendations may include regulatory issues, incentives, confidence
building, public acceptance and international co-ordination. In this regard, I have to say that Japanese CCS
Policy is now moving from CCS technology policy onto more general CCS promotional policy. This is
why this workshop on CCS confidence building is very important. So in this regard METI proposes the
development of international cooperation for confidence building in long term CCS at the 30th IEAGHG
Executive Committee in September last year. And the 30th IEA GHG Executive Committee had approved
the proposal. This workshop is a help as part of the approved proposal for facilitating international efforts
in building confidence towards CCS. So I’d like to expect active discussion at this workshop. Thank you
very much for you kind attention.
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