Japanese Minister of Environment and the third youngest politician in Japan, Shinjiro Koizumi. (Image via The Strait Times)

Shinjiro Koizumi: Climate protection should be 'fun' and 'sexy'

The third youngest and the current Japanese Minister of Environment, Shinjiro Koizumi, gave a new perspective about how the battle for environmental health should be seen. Japan is known to be dependent on coal for energy.

Speaking beside the figure behind the 2015 Paris Agreement, Christiana Figueres, Koizumi stated that nowadays it is the youth that has the biggest role in fighting the carbon emission.

In the beginning of climate summit in the 74th United Nations (UN) General Assembly (UNGA) this week, Koizumi stated that fight against climate change should be “fun” and “sexy”, and the 38-year-old politician vowed to help the youth in mobilizing the fight against the global issue.

The son of the former Japanese PM, Junichiro Koizumi, asserted that Japan, as the “more powerful” country, would do its best to tackle climate change. The Environment Minister also brought up the Kyoto Protocol 1997, made to tackle the climate problems.

During the speech, activists were floating a blimp showing the sarcasm toward the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, and his permission for the coal industry to flourish in Japan despite his promise to de-carbonize Japan.

The Japanese youth starts to be aware of the global issue. Last Friday (20/9), Japanese students in Tokyo are among the millions who went down the street to call for Abe’s effort in cutting the greenhouse gas and carbon emission.

As a fellow youngster, Shinjiro Koizumi also cried for a greener environment. For starter, Koizumi stated in his first press conference as the Environment Minister that he would close any nuclear power plant to prevent the Fukushima nuclear incident in 2011.

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/politics/Make-climate-fight-sexy-says-Japan's-new-environment-minister