Major firms, including Sony Corp, Panasonic Corp and Nissan Motor Co, yesterday urged the Japanese government to make its 2030 renewable energy target twice as ambitious.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga last year set a 2050 deadline for Japan to become carbon-neutral, but the country’s shorter-term renewables goal has long been criticized as lagging.
Japan aims to source 22 to 24 percent of its power from solar, wind and other renewables by 2030, a target set three years ago and soon to be reassessed as the government revises its energy strategy.
A group of 92 corporations known as the Japan Climate Initiative urged ministers to double this goal to 40 to 50 percent.
Many of Japan’s biggest firms, from Fujifilm Holdings Corp to Toshiba Corp, as well as household names in insurance, electricity and food and drink, signed the petition.
“In order for Japan to meet its responsibilities to be one of the leaders in global efforts [against climate change], the target needs to be much more ambitious,” they said in a statement. “An ambitious target will stimulate renewable energy deployment, and Japanese companies will be able to play a greater role in the global business environment, where decarbonization is accelerating.”
Japan’s renewable energy use was about 17 percent in 2017.
By some estimates, it might have already hit its 2030 target last year, due to a combination of growth in the green energy sector and a COVID-19-pandemic-related fall in demand.
The country ploughed US$16.5 billion into renewable energy in 2019, according to a UN report — making it the world’s fourth-biggest investor in the sector, but still far behind China, the US and Europe.
However, Japan is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, especially after public anger over the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster pushed all its nuclear reactors temporarily offline.
It has struggled to cut carbon emissions since the disaster, with one-third of total electricity generation provided by coal, and nearly 40 percent by liquefied natural gas-fired plants.
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