Japan wants to make renewables the main source of energy by 2040

Japan wants to make renewables the main source of energy by 2040

Japan wants renewables to be its main energy source by 2040 as it strives to become carbon neutral by mid-century, according to government plans unveiled on Tuesday.

Thirteen years after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, Tokyo also reaffirmed that it sees a major nuclear power rule to help Japan meet growing energy demands from artificial intelligence and microchip factories.

The world’s fourth-largest economy has the dirtiest energy mix in the G7, campaigners say, with fossil fuels accounting for almost 70 percent of energy generation last year.

The government has already set a target of being carbon neutral by 2050 and reducing emissions by 46 percent compared to 2013 levels by 2030.

According to the new plans, renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy would account for 40 to 50 percent of electricity generation in 2040.

That represents a jump from last year’s level of 23 percent and a previous 2030 target of 38 percent.

Resource-poor Japan “will strive to maximize the use of renewable energy as our main energy source,” the draft Strategic Energy Plan said.

Government experts were assessing the proposals released by the Natural Resources and Energy Agency and they would be submitted to the Cabinet for approval.

Japan aims to avoid relying heavily on a single energy source to ensure “both a stable energy supply and decarbonization,” the draft said.

Geopolitical concerns affecting energy lines, from the war in Ukraine to unrest in the Middle East, were also behind the shift to renewables and nuclear power, the report said.

– Import –

Nearly 70 percent of Japan’s energy needs in 2023 were met by power plants that burn coal, gas and oil.

Almost everything has to be imported, which cost Japan about $500 million a day last year.

The government wants this figure to drop to 30 to 40 percent by 2040.

The previously announced target for 2030 was 41 percent, or 42 percent if hydrogen and ammonia are included.

The new plans predict a 10 to 20 percent increase in total electricity generation by 2040, compared to 985 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2023.

“Securing carbon-free electricity sources is an issue directly related to our country’s economic growth,” Yoshifumi Murase, head of the National Energy Agency, told the government’s expert panel on Tuesday.

– Nuclear –

Unlike the previous plan three years ago, the new draft omitted language about “reducing Japan’s dependence on nuclear energy as much as possible” – a goal set after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power plants nationwide after the tsunami-induced Fukushima meltdown, the worst nuclear disaster of this century.

However, it has gradually brought them back online, despite public backlash in some places, reflecting nuclear energy coming back into favor in other countries as well.

According to the 2040 targets, nuclear energy will account for about 20 percent of Japan’s energy needs, about the same as the current 2030 target.

But that is more than double the 8.5 percent share of total energy generation that nuclear energy provided in 2023.

– Too little, too late –

Greenpeace’s Hirotaka Koike welcomed the new plan but said it was “too little too late” and called for “much greater ambitions” on renewables.

Japan “has committed to ‘completely or predominantly low-carbon energy systems by 2035’ and apparently their current plan is not enough,” Koike said.

Hanna Hakko of climate think tank E3G also called Japan’s ambitions ‘quite disappointing’.

“The government’s proposed power mix is ​​inconsistent with Japan’s international obligations to tackle climate change and accelerate the clean energy transition,” Hakko told AFP.

“Several scenarios from energy experts show that if the government were to implement supportive policies, renewables could expand to 60 to 80 percent of Japan’s electricity generation mix in the second half of 2030,” she said.