G7 environment ministers put Japan on the defensive at meeting | Abroad

The policy, which calls for wider use of untested technologies, could prove very controversial once the meetings get under way. Japan is under pressure from other G7 leaders to phase out coal by 2030, while renewable energy advocates want Japan to push for more renewable energy.

At last year’s meeting of G7 climate, energy and environment ministers in Berlin, members decided to decarbonise the electricity sector to a large extent by 2035. At the same time, ministers also agreed to highlight the role of low-carbon and renewable energy-based hydrogen and ammonia in achieving net-zero emissions, as well as carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies.

The green transformation policy includes an incentive for all those technologies, which the government believes are necessary to meet Japan’s target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. They also say the technology will help the world reach the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement. In that agreement, the goal is to limit global temperature rise this century to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

G7 members held working-level negotiations in Sapporo this week to reach agreement on a number of issues, including decarbonising the planet. At a press conference Tuesday, Environment Minister Akihiro Nishimura declined to comment on the status of the negotiations, saying several delicate issues are still being discussed.

As the start of the ministerial meeting approached, Japan came under increasing pressure to increase its use of renewable energy. On Wednesday, the Japan Climate Initiative (JCI) called for the majority of electricity to come from renewable energy sources by 2035 through regulatory reforms. The JCI statement was supported by 225 companies, 16 local governments (including Sapporo, Kyoto, Osaka and Yokohama) and a number of non-governmental organizations.

Renewable energy advocates are particularly concerned about the government’s stance on the word “predominantly.” This was used last year in the statement on decarbonising the energy sector. They wonder what this means for Japan’s efforts to meet the 2035 target. “The Japanese government has tried to avoid a specific definition of the word. Predominantly means 70 percent, 80 percent or 90 percent carbon free. But the Japanese government has said that overwhelming can also be interpreted as 51 percent or more,” JCI co-representative Takejiro Sueyoshi said at a news conference in Sapporo.

Japan’s current energy plan calls for 36 percent to 38 percent of electricity to come from renewables by 2030. The JCI statement notes that four other G7 countries – Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy – are already using more renewable energy than Japan’s 2030 target.

The US has set a goal of getting 80 percent of its electricity from carbon-free energy sources, including nuclear, by 2030, and 100 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2035. For Japan, reaching that goal by 2035 would require a massive increase in renewable energy.

According to a recent analysis of Japan’s electricity sector, Japan is lagging far behind its renewable energy ambition. That could remain a major bone of contention in Sapporo and ahead of the G7 summit in Hiroshima in May. “As Japan assumes the presidency of the G7, it faces a major challenge: more than two-thirds of its electricity still comes from fossil fuels,” said Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, senior electricity analyst at Ember. “This is the highest of any G7 country, at a time when the G7 has committed to fully or substantially decarbonising the electricity sector by 2035. The G7 will want to put more pressure on Japan on this point.”