Japan once led the world in energy efficiency, but now lags far behind Britain and other European countries when measured in terms of economic output per unit of energy consumed. Japan's greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by about 10 percent in the 30 years to 2020, but much of the reduction is due not to improved energy efficiency but to slow economic growth and a shrinking population.
Japan once led the world in energy efficiency, but now lags far behind Britain and other European countries when measured in terms of economic output per unit of energy consumed.
Japan's greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by about 10 percent in the 30 years to 2020, but much of the reduction is due not to improved energy efficiency but to slow economic growth and a shrinking population. In other Western countries, decarbonisation and economic growth through renewable energy are paying off, but economic stagnation has prevented Japan from doing so.
"We will turn the challenge of decarbonisation into a growth engine and strive for a sustainable economy," Fumio Kishida, prime minister, said at the government's Green Transition council in July.
Although Japan is far from Asia's biggest energy consumer in terms of the size of its economy, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami delayed changes to its energy mix. Japan has become more dependent on fossil fuels as the amount of electricity generated by its nuclear plants has plummeted. Japan's power shortages this summer were similarly solved by turning on old coal-fired power plants.
Japan has also been slow to adopt renewable energy. It introduced a feed-in tariff in 2012, but won't start tendering for offshore wind projects until 2020, and the country's wind power infrastructure is underdeveloped. Japan is a pioneer in the development of lithium-ion batteries, which are crucial for decarbonisation, but has been losing market share to China in recent years.
Japan's green transition has been further hampered by incoherent policies. The Japanese government continued to extend petrol subsidies introduced in January to keep prices down. However, there is no clear deadline for the plan, which will further delay the needed reform of Japan's energy mix.
Japan, which turned the oil shock to its advantage by promoting fuel-efficient cars and home appliances, appears to be getting more and more out of its way in the energy price war.