In 2009, Japan pledged to cut its carbon emissions by 25 percent based on 1990 levels within 11 years. Four years laterâ€”including a nuclear meltdown at Fukushimaâ€”and Japan has reset its goal with a new target to cut emissions by 3.8 percent based on 2005 levels at the UN Climate Summit in Warsaw, Poland. But, the new target, which received widespread condemnation when announced on Friday, actually results in a 3.1 percent rise in emissions when viewed from the widely-accepted 1990 baseline.

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"The new target is based on zero nuclear power in the future. We have to lower our ambition level," said Hiroshi Minami, Japan's delegate at the 19th annual Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Since the meltdown at Fukushima, Japan has shuttered all 50 of its nuclear power plants and largely turned to importing fossil fuels to make up the difference. Before Fukushima, nuclear power made up nearly a third of Japan's energy mix, and the country had expected to push that even further; while the Japanese government still hopes to reopen some of its nuclear power plants, there is no timeline in place.

Despite Japan's nuclear issues, many nations were quick to criticize the world's third largest economy for backtracking so far.

"The announcement represents a huge step backwards in the global effort to hold warming below the essential 1.5-2 degrees celsius threshold, and puts our populations at great risk," reads a statement by the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a group of 44 island-states that are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. "This is neither the time nor the place to be backtracking on commitments. Developed countries have committed to taking the lead and must do so as we work to peak global emissions this decade and ink a new global agreement in 2015."

In fact, an analysis by Climate Action Tracker, a group of independent scientists, found that the closing of Japan's nuclear power plants couldn't account fully for the drastic shift in Japan's pledge. According to them, even if Japan replaced all of its nuclear energy with coalâ€”the world's most carbon intensive fuel sourceâ€”the country could still hit a nine percent CO2 emissions reduction by 2020.

Japan is the world fifth largest CO2 emitter and is generally responsible for around 3-4 percent of global CO2 emissions.

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Tokyo image via Shutterstock.