Japan is strengthening its energy policy.

Japan has just announced a new, very ambitious energy policy.

The Japanese government has just stepped up its ecological transition. This country which is very poor in natural resources, forced to import up to 90% of its energy needs, has decided to revise all its objectives upwards and to step up efforts in renewable energies. Indeed, their share should drop from 24% currently decided to 38% soon. This represents a significant increase in consideration of the 18% of the country's green energies in 2019.

Even though many Japanese environmental organizations and companies believe the new targets could have been higher, we must recognize the considerable effort made by a country that remains, to this day, the fifth largest polluter in the world.

Regarding the share of nuclear power, which remains a sensitive area since the Fukushima disaster, the government has decided to stick to the initially planned target of 22% by 2030 against barely 6.2% in 2019 .

Increased use of renewable energies should lead to a decrease in the use of fossil fuels. Thus, the share of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the main energy resource currently used by Japan, should be reduced to 20% in 2030, against a current target of 27% and a share of 37% in 2019. Coal, as for to him, should also drop to 19%, against a current 2030 target of 26% and a share of 32% in 2019. And finally, oil should decrease by 2%, against a current target of 3% and a share of 7 % in Japan's energy mix in 2019.

In addition to strengthening renewable energies, Japan should also soon use hydrogen and ammonia to complete its energy mix in 2030. This gas composed of hydrogen and nitrogen does not emit CO2 emissions when it is used as fuel. Japanese industrial projects to import hydrogen and ammonia in liquid form have already entered the test phase.

However, in the same way as other renewable energies, it will be necessary for the production of these gases to be totally clean, if we want total decarbonisation. Japan still has 140 coal-fired power plants in operation, and more are in the pipeline. Their promoters assure that they are cleaner than the old ones, but they remain much more polluting compared to other sources of energy. Jera, the largest electricity producer in Japan, wants to shut down its "inefficient" coal plants by 2030, and gradually use ammonia and hydrogen as co-fuels in its more modern thermal plants.

With this new arsenal, Japan intends to become carbon neutral by 2050. and stay on its new path of 46% CO² reduction in 2030 compared to 2013 levels against a previous target of 26% at the same time .

Geo Point

Japan

Capital: Tokyo

Population: 126.3 million inhabitants

Area: 377,975 km²

Currency: Yen