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 to be carbon neutral by 2050, joining a growing list of countries aiming to stave off the worst effects of climate change.

The country's approach will include new solar cells and carbon recycling, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Monday, according to 

. Further plans are expected to be announced in the future. Suga took 

Carbon neutral means balancing carbon emissions by also removing carbon from the atmosphere.

 it aims to be carbon neutral in that same timeline. Japan set its goal a decade sooner than China, which pledged last month to be 

"Responding to climate change is no longer a constraint on economic growth," Suga said Monday, according to Reuters. "I declare we will aim to realize a decarbonized society." 

In fact, economic growth has been disconnected from greenhouse gas emissions since at least 2015, according to the International Energy Agency. 

 Japan has continued to invest in new coal infrastructure since the Paris Agreement was signed. 

More than 60 other countries have said they're trying to be carbon neutral by 2050, 

Most of these countries are small compared to China, which 

 global net greenhouse emissions need to be eliminated by 2050 to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. 

the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases

The United States, the world's second largest carbon emitter, has not made any pledges to become carbon neutral. It will leave the Paris climate agreement on Nov. 4 and is the only country to withdraw from it.

Under the Paris Agreement, the U.S. said it would cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26% by 2025,

 NPR's Rebecca Hersher and Jackie Northam reported.

 But the country has fallen behind to projected a 17% cut by 2025.

The U.S.'s withdrawal put pressure on the E.U., Mauro Petriccione, the director general of the European Commission's Climate Change group, said in an NPR interview last month.

"This kind of operation of this magnitude and the resources required? Well, without the U.S. it has seriously damaged the international process," Petriccione 

Reese Oxner

Author

The country joins the European Union and other countries that have pledged to reduce their carbon footprint to zero over the next few decades.

'A decarbonized society': Japan pledges to be carbon neutral by 2050

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