Japan’s energy transition scheme: wholesale greenwashing?

In March, Japan announced it will offer over $1 trillion in financial and technological aid to ASEAN countries in order to facilitate a decarbonisation and clean energy transition in the region. Its plan, however, has been labeled as greenwashing by several countries in Southeast Asia. 

The investments include renewable energy projects, but also natural gas, ammonia and hydrogen projects, which critics claim are “loopholes” Tokyo intentionally drills into the plan to fulfil its green goals. 

Energy demand in Southeast Asia has grown by 80 percent since 2000, and coal has been the most widely used source of fuel. Japan launched an ambitious net zero plan back in 2020, setting the target of carbon neutrality by 2050. Domestically, the East Asian nation plans to have over half of its energy mix from renewables, and the remaining from nuclear, thermal, hydrogen and ammonia through the use of carbon utilisation and storage. 

At the annual United Nations climate conference (COP27) last year, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio initiated a plan to collaborate with Japan’s Asian counterparts under the newly conceived Asia Zero Emissions Community (AZEC). 

In a statement, officials listed several energy projects Japan launched with Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries. Its hydrogen-oriented energy transition expanded from its domestic use to overseas, with authorities saying that Japan is “ahead of the curve,” and that developing LNG infrastructure can “help expedite the process.”

LNG: better for profit or the environment?

Japan and certain experts argue that a rapid transition from coal remains unrealistic for Southeast Asian countries, as they lack the wind and solar resources of Europe and North America. 

But environmentalists labelled the plan “toxic,” calling it a greenwashing act by the Japanese government, and pointing out that renewable energy options are in fact cheaper. A total of 140 concerned groups signed an open letter in March calling on Japan to stop exporting dirty tech to other countries “in the guise of supporting carbon neutrality.”

NGO Climate Action Tracker said in a report that LNG expansion can compromise meeting the Paris Agreement target of keeping global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degree Celcius above pre-industrial levels. 

“It’s a delay tactic,” Masayoshi Iyoda, Japan Team Lead at 350.org who also signed the open letter, told FairPlanet. “The tactic intends to protect the vested interest in the Japanese fossil industries, but it will never be the silver bullet in the shrinking fossil market toward a fully decarbonised world.” 

Critics say Japan’s development of CCUS to cut carbon emissions from these overseas fossil fuel plants is irresponsible, as the technology has yet to be proved effective and is still costly to install. A report from the International Energy Agency said that CCUS deployment has been slow and has “limited impact on global carbon emissions.”

And even though hydrogen is a clean energy, producing it involves a great deal of carbon emissions, they say, which would apply increased pressure on developing nations that often bear heavy debts from such construction projects and are at the forefront of human-caused climate change impacts. 

Green groups say that such fossil fuel plants would prolong harmful impacts on people’s health and livelihood in Southeast Asia.

A just transition?

“If the just energy transition in Japan is delayed further,” Iyoda added, “Japanese people will lose opportunities for green jobs, improved air quality to avoid thousands of premature deaths and energy efficiency to reduce the energy cost of living.”

Experts call for Japan to first focus on shuttering its coal-fired power plant fleet domestically. There are currently a total of 167 coal plants operating in the country, and four additional ones are being constructed, according to data from Japan Beyond Coal, a local NGO. 

Japan has been looking for energy alternatives, with Kishida’s government opting to accelerate the use of nuclear energy. This raised a lot of eyebrows, as the country is still recovering from one of the most severe nuclear disasters in its history, which took place in Fukushima back in 2011. 

The country justified the use of coal for its stability compared to nuclear energy in the past decade, and its overseas energy finance, including natural gas projects, surged after it faced pressure to curb coal expansion. 

“Japan should set ambitious energy efficiency and renewables targets as well as a clear roadmap to a fossil fuel phase-out, including a complete coal phase-out by 2030,” Iyoda suggested. “Japan needs to introduce strong energy efficiency measures including an effective carbon tax and abandon any and all support for fossil-fueled energy.”

On top of focusing on slashing the use of dirty energy in Japan, Iyoda also proposed educating young people on identifying greenwashing tactics so they can speak up for climate justice. 

“People’s climate movements in Japan and overseas will never allow [the Japanese authorities] to continue greenwashing.”

Picture by Mark Merner