Japan Shouldn’t Ditch Coal, PM Candidate Says

Japan should prioritize economic growth to renewables and will continue to need coal-fired electricity, a candidate to lead the ruling party and become the next prime minister said on Tuesday.

“Japan will need coal-fired power plants,” Takayuki Kobayashi, who is one of the candidates to lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said, as carried by Bloomberg.

The remarks from Kobayashi, a former economic security minister, showed the strongest support for fossil fuels among the ruling party’s candidates for PM.

Japan needs energy security, Kobayashi said, adding that he would revisit the country’s current energy strategy if he becomes prime minister.

“The current energy plan is too biased toward renewable energy and needs to be overhauled,” Bloomberg quoted Kobayashi as saying.

“We can’t be a developed nation asking people to conserve electricity during summer and winter seasons,” he added.

Over the past two years, Japan has repeatedly called on residents and businesses to conserve energy to ensure uninterrupted power supply during the hottest summer months and save on the energy import bill in the winter when LNG prices hit record highs in 2022.

Earlier this year, a government projection showed that Japan would need to increase its electricity output by between 35% and 50% by 2050 to meet a proportionate surge in demand.

At present, fossil fuels account for about 70% of Japan’s electricity, which would clash with its net-zero goal.

Japan is estimated to be the country with the world’s fifth-largest carbon footprint, preceded only by China, the United States, India, and Russia.

Currently, Japan is bringing back nuclear power as a key energy source, looking to protect its energy security in the wake of the energy crisis that led to surging fossil fuel prices. The resource-poor country which needs to import about 90% of its energy requirements, made a U-turn in its nuclear energy policy at the end of 2022, as its energy import bill soared amid the energy crisis and surging costs to import LNG at record-high prices.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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