An aerial photograph shows emissions from industrial plants in Yokohama on Dec 16, 2019. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP)

TOKYO - Japan on Thursday raised its target for cutting carbon emissions to 46 percent by 2030, responding to pressure from the United States and domestic companies and environmentalists who criticised its previous goal of 26 percent as unambitious.

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced the new target, compared with 2013 emissions levels, hours before the start of a virtual summit on climate change called by US President Joe Biden.

Japan has been under pressure from the Biden administration to be more ambitious, according to sources familiar with discussions held when Suga visited Washington last weekend

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Washington is seeking to restore its credibility on combating global warming after Biden's predecessor Donald Trump undermined an international consensus on reducing emissions.

Japan has been under pressure from the Biden administration to be more ambitious, according to sources familiar with discussions held when Suga visited Washington last weekend.

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Suga late last year set a goal for carbon neutrality by 2050, bringing Japan more into line with some other countries. An end to carbon and other emissions by 2050 is seen as the minimum needed to keep the global temperature rise as close to 1.5 degrees centigrade as possible.

The Japanese government is reviewing energy policy this year and has indicated it will aim for lower use of carbon-emitting fossil fuels in the electricity mix, but has so far kept up its support for coal due to the slow restart of reactors after the Fukushima nuclear disaster led to their shutdown.