Japan’s Green Growth Strategy supports 2050 carbon neutrality

Submitted by Imogen Allan on 03 February 2021

On 25 December Japan launched its Green Growth Strategy which aims to support the 2050 carbon neutrality target.

The full document is only available in Japanese, but the EU-Japan Cooperation for Climate has  published an English summary of the main elements for a European audience (including businesses engaged or interested in partnerships with Japan in climate-related fields).

Context

The Green Growth Strategy is a set of industrial policies aiming to support the overarching target set by the Prime Minister in October 2020: make Japan carbon neutral by 2050.

The strategy sets goals in 14 fields, identifies current challenges and formulates the basis for action plans including budgets, taxes, regulatory reforms, standardisation and international collaboration. The strategy is expected to trigger an annual growth of 90 trillion yen (€700 million) by 2030 and 190 trillion yen (€1.5 billion) by 2050.

The 14 priority fields are:

  • Offshore wind (wind turbines, components, floating turbines)
  • Ammonia fuel (transition period to the hydrogen society)
  • Hydrogen (hydrogen power generation, hydrogen-fueled steelmaking, hydrogen carrier ships, electrolyzers)
  • Nuclear power (small modular reactors, hydrogen production from nuclear)
  • Mobility and batteries (electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, next generation batteries)
  • Semiconductors and ICT (data centres, energy-efficient semiconductors)
  • Maritime transport (hydrogen ships, electric ships, gas-fueled ships)
  • Logistics (smart transportation, logistics drones, hydrogen machinery for construction)
  • Food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries (smart agriculture, high-rise wood construction, blue carbon)
  • Aviation (hybrid electric aircrafts, hydrogen aircrafts)
  • Carbon recycling (concrete, biofuels, plastics)
  • Next generation solar panels for housing and building (perovskite solar cells)
  • Resource circularity (biomaterials, recycled materials, power generation from waste)
  • Lifestyle industry (local decarbonisation of businesses)

The strategy’s targets include trippling the share of renewable power to at least 50% by 2050, phasing out sales of new gasoline-only cars by 2035 and increasing hydrogen consumption across all industries to around 20 million metric tons a year by 2050.

Find out more about Japan’s Green Growth Strategy here.

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