Ministry of cool?

Japan turns off heating to meet Kyoto targets

It’s one way to break the bureaucrats of their high energy habits. Japan’s Environment Ministry simply switched off the office heating - and let them resort to woolly jumpers. It was only for one week, back in February, and it wasn’t actually as tough as it sounded, said civil servant Masanori Shishido, with all those computers kicking out heat.

He did admit he was wearing thermals - but that’s surely a good sign, as the office dress code is actually part of the problem. The suit, shirt and tie look has too long been considered de rigueur - with serious carbon consequences in hot weather too, as the air conditioning gets cranked up to make such formal attire tolerable. Last summer, Japanese businessmen and civil servants were urged to go for open-collar, short-sleeve shirts so the aircon could be turned down.

Like the keep-warm bra [see ‘Warm front’ GF56], these may look like wacky stunts, but the message is a serious one; to encourage both business and government to cut office energy use. The country desperately needs to pull together to meet its Kyoto Protocol targets. Having signed up to a 6% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels, Japan has lagged a long way behind on effective action. At the last count, emissions were up 7.4%. Might the same tactics be worth trying here in the UK, then?

The man from the ministry doesn’t think so. Tony McDougal, Defra’s climate change communications manager, points out that we, unlike Japan, are on track to meet and most likely beat our Kyoto targets (although not Labour’s own pledge of a more ambitious cut in emissions - see ‘Tune in, turn off’. Tony Blair, however, has got in on the act. In March, the prime minister turned down the thermostats in Number Ten and Chequers by 1oC, and fitted energy-saving lightbulbs outside the door. “Not a stunt, but a permanent change,” assured a spokesman. - Hannah Bullock

21 May 2006

Hannah Bullock