G-7 ministers face a climate fight

           G-7 ministers face a climate fight

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As the world’s most advanced economies discuss tackling climate change in Japan this weekend, the host country is set to face some uncomfortable scrutiny of its policies to deliver on green targets. The Group of Seven have appointed themselves leaders in the global mission to decarbonize. But Japan’s plan to eliminate carbon pollution from its power sector is an outlier among its peers. Its current emissions-reduction trajectory strays the furthest from what’s needed by 2030 to reach net zero by 2050, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and the Network for Greening the Financial System, an organization of more than 100 central banks and regulators.

Despite their outsize contribution to the planet-warming carbon dioxide that’s accumulated in the atmosphere, no G-7 country has made pledges to the United Nations that are sufficient to keep the world from warming less than 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, according to the nonprofit Climate Action Tracker. Even so, Japan stands out for its approach, which relies heavily on carbon capture, ammonia and hydrogen to keep burning fossil fuels. Banking on these technologies for gas and coal-fired power plants “is a very, very dangerous play by the Japanese government,” said Maria Pastukhova, a senior policy advisor at the consultancy E3G. Their use as climate fixes “have not yet proven commercial and it is uncertain how scalable these solutions are, or how fast the cost can be reduced.”

The Asian nation’s reluctance to move away from carbon-intensive energy sources was reflected in draft communique documents circulated ahead of the G-7 energy and environment ministers summit in Sapporo. Japan, along with the EU and the US, expressed reservations about setting a 2030 deadline to phase out unabated domestic coal power. It's also pushed for language endorsing the use of hydrogen and ammonia as a power source, and been supportive of more gas investments. Japan had the lowest share of zero-carbon power generation — from solar, wind, hydro and nuclear — in the G-7 in 2021, according to an analysis by BloombergNEF, and is projected to have the second-lowest after Italy by the end of the decade. Current deployment of solar and wind power are nowhere near the rate needed to reach the government’s target of having renewables contribute 36% to 38% of power by 2030, according to Ali Izadi-Najafabadi, an analyst at the research group.

“It is not appropriate to criticize the government just because [it is] taking a different pathway from that of Europe, which places more emphasis on renewable energy,” Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in response to questions. Japan is not more reliant on carbon capture and storage (CCS) than the US and UK, which have pledged tens of billions of dollars of support for the technology, it said.  While many countries are banking on CCS to help curb emissions, much of the focus is on sectors such as steel and cement production where there are few carbon-free alternatives. Japan, however, intends to use them to keep coal and gas plants running for decades. Even if the government hits its target of developing facilities capable of capturing 240 million tons per year by midcentury, that would only eliminate the equivalent of roughly a quarter of its 2020 emissions, according to BNEF.

Japan is also working toward meeting a target for all new passenger car sales to be electric vehicles by 2035, though policies mandating the long-term phaseout of internal combustion engine vehicles have faced pushback from Toyota Motor Corp., according to nonprofit think tank InfluenceMap. The company said it is “sincerely working” on carbon-neutrality issues. Meanwhile, Japan’s EV adoption is forecast by BNEF to be the lowest among G-7 countries by the end of the decade.

Meanwhile, Japan needs a more modern power grid that can more easily accept renewable power and distribute those electrons where they are required. The country estimates it will spend between 3.6 and 5.4 trillion yen ($27 and $41 billion) through midcentury to boost interregional transmission, according to an analysis of the plan from BNEF. While this will help, the government still envisions renewables only making up around half 50% of the nation’s power generation by 2050. The investment is significantly below what is needed to ensure the grid is capable of meeting the Paris Agreement’s goals, according to BNEF, which estimates Japan needs at least 86% of its energy generation to be clean, requiring an expenditure of $56 billion for interregional grid transmission.  "Unless there is a drastic, immediate shift in policy,” said BNEF’s Izadi-Najafabadi, “Japan will continue to lag its G-7 peers.”

Metals focus  $7.5 billion G-7 nations are working on a plan to allocate more that this much toward the development of mines to secure minerals like lithium and nickel, which are crucial for green technologies.

Wrangling over phrasing "Every time they start having carveouts on fossil fuel finance or road transport or unabated coal, they give other countries excuses to say, ‘Well you talk a big game, but you’re not delivering at home.'" Alden Meyer Senior associate at the consultancy E3G. Meyer says G-7 countries' climate action caveats provide fodder to other countries critical of rich nations’ progress on and commitment to combating global warming.

                       Fuente: https://www.bloomberg.com/green