NEW YORK (Reuters) – Japan’s new environment minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, pledged on Sunday to mobilize young people to push his coal-dependent country toward a low-carbon future by making the fight against climate change “sexy” and “fun.” FILE PHOTO: Japan’s Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi attends a news conference at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s official residence in Tokyo, Japan September 11, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo Koizumi was speaking on the eve of a United Nations climate summit in New York where activists plan to float a blimp showing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emerging from a bucket of coal to protest Japan’s pans to build new coal-fired power plants. “In politics there are so many issues, sometimes boring. On tackling such a big-scale issue like climate change, it’s got to be fun, it’s got to be cool. It’s got to be sexy too,” Koizumi told a news conference in New York. “We are committed to realizing a decarbonised society, and we are ready to contribute as a more powerful country in the fight against climate change,” he said. Japanese students in Tokyo were among the millions of young people who took to the streets on Friday to express the fear and outrage […]

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