After the Fukushima disaster shut down Japan’s nuclear reactors, the coal industry rushed in to fill the energy gap. As climate advocate Kimiko Hirata watched dozens of new coal plant proposals quietly surface across the country — each one locking in decades of future emissions — she resolved to make them impossible to ignore. She shares how a small, scrappy civil society movement took on a fossil-fuel-dependent economy and got people to say “yes” to a renewable future. (Recorded at TED Countdown Summit 2025 on June 18, 2025)
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@onedelish
April 22, 2026 at 11:02 am
amazing
@kevinl4966
April 22, 2026 at 11:06 am
All true…………………… .
@njtek
April 22, 2026 at 11:20 am
What if you carbon capture into clean coal and burn only for emergency heat with lots of filters for more carbon capture
@j.dontmatta
April 22, 2026 at 11:21 am
What we need is a cheat sheet to defeat the leftwing green scheme stealing Billions from hard working people. Then they turn off coal and make prices skyrocket even further. Coal is not the problem.
@njtek
April 22, 2026 at 11:21 am
Japan needs heat for mountains coal energy dense need diesel hybrid caterpillar generators
@shivashakti836
April 22, 2026 at 11:23 am
One person’s voice may sound small, but when it carries truth, it can shake an entire industry. Respect to Kimiko Hirata for proving that courage can change a nation’s future.”
@jliu6735
April 22, 2026 at 11:27 am
Clearly, this lady never has to worry about her electricity bill.
@ThePsykool8
April 22, 2026 at 11:31 am
Sunlight is free
@ДмитрийДобрый-щ7к
April 22, 2026 at 12:14 pm
But sunlight isn’t always available in northern latitudes—it’s not the equator, after all. Then we still need to be able to convert electrical energy into synthesis gas, and then into aviation or automotive fuel.
@AdrianaAnca-v7g
April 22, 2026 at 2:38 pm
@ThePsykool8pffffffffff stay away from the plain sunlight 😀,love💖
@ShieldAre
April 22, 2026 at 4:03 pm
Coal is more expensive than solar and wind energy.
@Badger_The_Wind_in_the_Willows
April 22, 2026 at 11:29 am
I suspect three out of the four comments here so far, who want more coal extraction and burning, are bots meant to sway public opinion. We are truly living in dark times. Follow the ACTUAL science and NOT what your corporate overlords demand.
@dsdgdsfegfeg
April 22, 2026 at 12:04 pm
Total Coal burning per year in millions of tonnes
🔸🇨🇳CN 6000 Mt
🔸🇺🇸US 516 Mt
🔸🇪🇺EU 285 Mt
96% of all the new coal burning power plants being built in the entire world are being built by China.
China doesn’t care about global warming, it never has, never a reduction, always increasing coal burning
It’s now too late.
Respect to Japan and everyone else in the world that doesn’t lie.
@ShieldAre
April 22, 2026 at 4:06 pm
Those numbers are incorrect or outdated. China is installing more renewable energy than the rest of the world combined (and also a lot of nuclear energy). This is not to give a China a pass on its past emissions or the coal plants still in use. But more and more of those coal plants will soon be shut down as they have become uneconomical.
@Lucky-9527
April 22, 2026 at 9:01 pm
中国是“世界工厂”，主要承担了高耗能的中游原材料加工任务。由于全球产业链将这些高能耗环节集中在中国，对应的煤炭消耗也必然反映在中国账面上。
你不可能一边将高污染高耗能的产业转移到其他国家，另一边谴责这些国家高耗能。
@LupusMobile
April 22, 2026 at 12:28 pm
Anyone who believes green/clean/renewable energy is the sole solution, has absolutely no understanding of energy. It is IMPOSSIBLE to generate enough energy for the amount of lifeforms on this planet with green energy alone.
@Garlicnaan08
April 22, 2026 at 2:39 pm
And above all is 🇨🇳
@cheerychinchilla
April 22, 2026 at 4:33 pm
Wonderful Ted talk! Resilient and hopeful. We should lessen our energy use and work on using green energy, even is it’s hard.
@guangyuli8181
April 22, 2026 at 5:11 pm
when you cancel the coal power plant, have you ever proposed an achievable plan to fill the gap
@jeremychoo934
April 22, 2026 at 8:59 pm
The current Iran war brings what she’s saying into sharp focus. While I support any efforts to reduce carbon emissions, including the transition away from coal as a power source, the economic reality is that due to LNG and diesel supply constraints caused by the war, many countries in Asia are either ramping up production at their coal power plants or those who have decommissioned the coal power plants are restarting production. In the short term, the transition away from coal is a luxury that many developing countries cannot afford.