Tokyo’s Shibuya area is famed for its Scramble Crossing, where crowds of people crisscross the intersection in a scene symbolizing urban Japan’s congestion and anonymity.
It might have added another boasting right.
Tokyu Railways’ trains running through Shibuya and other stations were switched to power generated only by solar and other renewable sources starting on April 1.
Photo: AP
That means the carbon dioxide emissions of Tokyu’s sprawling network of seven train lines and one tram service now stand at zero, with green energy being used at all its stations, including for vending machines, security camera screens and lighting.
Tokyu, which employs 3,855 people and connects Tokyo with nearby Yokohama, is the first railroad operator in Japan to have achieved that goal.
It says the carbon dioxide reduction is equivalent to the annual average emissions of 56,000 Japanese households.
Nicholas Little, director of railway education at Michigan State University’s Center for Railway Research and Education, commended Tokyu for promoting renewable energy sources, but stressed the importance of boosting the bottom-line amount of that renewable energy.
“I would stress [that] the bigger impacts come from increasing electricity generation from renewable sources,” he said. “The long-term battle is to increase production of renewable electricity and provide the transmission infrastructure to get it to the places of consumption.”
The technology used by Tokyu’s trains is among the most ecologically friendly options for railways. The other two options are batteries and hydrogen power.
And so is it just a publicity stunt, or is Tokyu moving in the right direction?
Ryo Takagi, a professor at Kogakuin University and specialist in electric railway systems, believes the answer is not simple, because how train technology evolves is complex and depends on many uncertain societal factors.
In a nutshell, Tokyu’s efforts are definitely not hurting and are probably an improvement on doing nothing, Takagi said.
They show the company is taking up the challenge of promoting clean energy, he said.
“However, I am not going out of my way to praise it as great,” Takagi said.
Bigger gains would come from switching from diesel trains in rural areas to hydrogen powered lines, and from switching road vehicles to electric, he said.
Tokyu paid an undisclosed amount to Tokyo Electric Power Co, the utility behind the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster, for certification vouching for its use of renewables, even as Japan continues to use coal and other fossil fuels.
“We don’t see this as reaching our goal, but just a start,” said Yoshimasa Kitano, an assistant manager at Tokyu’s headquarters.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
RSS