By Junko Horiuchi,
As ministerial talks gear up ahead of the Group of Seven summit in May, Japan's ability to lead the discussions -- at least on the issue of climate change -- is facing doubts, as the resource-poor nation continues with fossil fuel use in ways critics say go against the global trend of transitioning to renewable energy.
After chairing the two-day meeting through Sunday on climate and energy issues in the northern city of Sapporo, Environment Minister Akihiro Nishimura claimed the talks were a success, saying that by laying out specific steps to address climate change, "We can demonstrate our strong determination that the G-7 will take the lead in global efforts."
But just as was the case at last year's G-7 talks hosted by Germany, Japan, which aims to use coal for most of the 2030s at least, was once again a factor behind the failure of the group to set a deadline for phasing out power plants fired by the polluting energy source.
In a communique released after the talks, the G-7 ministers retained language from last year's summit statement about the group's commitment to achieving a "fully or predominantly" decarbonized power sector by 2035, although some countries other than Japan have called for removing the word "predominantly."
"Japan's decarbonization policy is not aligned with global standards. It needs to introduce more renewable energy and at a higher speed," said Shigeo Kato, co-representative of the Japan Climate Initiative, a network of companies, local governments and nongovernmental organizations seeking more ambitious climate action.
"To that end, our country needs to aim for a quick exit from fossil fuels" including natural gas and oil, Kato said, stressing that the gap between Japan and the world in decarbonization efforts is expanding.
Japan, the world's fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gas, depended on coal for 31 percent of its electricity in fiscal 2021 and estimates the figure will be around 19 percent in fiscal 2030. Renewables accounted for 20 percent, and are expected to expand to around 36 to 38 percent by fiscal 2030.
As of 2021, four G-7 countries -- Britain, Canada, Germany and Italy -- had already derived more of their electricity from renewable energy sources than Japan's 2030 target calls for. France was generating more than 90 percent of its electricity from nuclear power and renewables in that year, according to the JCI.
Britain, Canada, Germany and the United States, the world's second largest emitter which President Joe Biden brought back to the Paris climate accord, are aiming for a carbon pollution-free electricity sector by 2035, it said.
Facing the urgent need to reduce reliance on Russian fossil fuels in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine last year, the European Union has decided to lift its target for renewables to 45 percent of total energy consumption by 2030 from the previous goal of 40 percent.
Japan had previously been looking to Russia as part of its efforts to diversify its energy suppliers, but in the wake of the Ukraine war, it drew up in February this year a basic policy for green transformation that features the use of renewable energy and nuclear power.
But the so-called GX policy has been criticized by environmental experts for focusing too much on seeking investments in decarbonization technologies that are still at the testing stage, while also in some cases lacking clarity on the timing for implementation.
The Japanese government, meanwhile, aims to introduce carbon pricing, but the imposition of levies on importers of oil and natural gas would only formally start in fiscal 2028 and emissions trading from fiscal 2026 at the earliest, a schedule that experts say is too slow.
As the world strives to achieve the goal of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels under the Paris Agreement, Japan is among the many countries that have vowed to attain net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and has also pledged to slash emissions by 46 percent in 2030 compared to 2013 levels.
But the GX policy has not laid out fresh numerical emission-cutting targets between 2030 and 2050, even as experts call for urgent efforts to curb global warming this decade.
Takejiro Sueyoshi, co-representative of JCI, said Japan is "at a crossroads" in terms of whether it can drastically expand the use of renewable energies, warning that Japanese companies would not be able to attract investments and would lose their international competitiveness if their commitments to renewables are insufficient.
"Already some have faced demands to increase the uptake of renewable energies to join new businesses or investments," Sueyoshi said.
For example, Apple Inc.'s clean energy drive in recent years has been pushing more Japanese companies to commit to 100 percent use of renewable energy in manufacturing items supplied to the tech giant.
Experts have also been wary that Japan continues to attach weight to the use of thermal power with fossil fuels on the grounds that there are measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, such as by burning hydrogen and its derivative ammonia with gas and coal at the plants.
Hydrogen is touted as a next-generation energy source which produces only water as an emission when used as fuel.
Japan's industry ministry says co-firing of ammonia and hydrogen with coal and gas is "more realistic" than the early phasing out of coal-fired power and replacing it with renewable energy, citing the lack of sufficient land space to install solar panels among other challenges.
But there are also doubts whether the burning of ammonia can be called a clean energy source. A 2022 report by research firm BloombergNEF said it can lead to emissions of other greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide, noting that its global warming potential is 273 times larger than that of CO2 on a 100-year timescale.
The G-7 ministers said in the communique on Sunday that hydrogen and its derivatives, such as ammonia, could be "effective emission reduction tools to advance decarbonization across sectors and industries," but called for the need to avoid producing other pollutants when using it as a fuel, which may require further technological innovation.
"Retrofitting coal plants to burn ammonia is too expensive, especially with a high co-firing ratio. Japan would be better served accelerating the deployment of renewable energy to decarbonize its power sector," said Isshu Kikuma, Japan analyst at the firm and lead author of the report.
Another controversial issue in Japan's efforts to slash emissions is its reliance on nuclear power at a time when many people remain concerned about the use of the energy source following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster, triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami.
But Kanna Mitsuta, an environmental group member, said, "Nuclear power should not be pursued as a solution to climate change when considering the risks associated with it such as malfunctions, accidents and nuclear waste that needs to be stored for an extremely long time."
"Globally the cost of nuclear power generation continues to rise as additional safety measures are required to restart reactors as well as for maintenance and decommissioning," she said.
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