TOKYO -- The race is on. Japan's pledge to become a zero-emissions society by 2050 will send automakers, steel producers and other big industrial players scrambling to develop green technologies that will help slash their carbon footprints.
"I hereby declare that Japan will strive to become a carbon neutral society, with zero net emissions, by 2050," Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Monday in his first policy speech to the Diet. A "shift in thinking" is necessary to look at the challenge as "leading to major growth," Suga added, signaling his focus on spurring innovation.
