[Press Release] On the Cabinet Decision on the 7th Strategic Energy Plan, Plan for Global Warming Countermeasures, and GX 2040 Vision: A historic catastrophe that will be passed onto future generations (February 18, 2025)

February 18, 2025
Kiko Network
Mie Asaoka, President

　

On February 18, the Ishiba administration approved the 7th Strategic Energy Plan, the Plan for Global Warming Countermeasures, and the GX2040 Vision at a cabinet meeting. The  comments submitted by the public on the government's draft plans were released the day before the Cabinet decision. The number of comments reached 41,421 (Strategic Energy Plan), 3,211 (Plan for Global Warming Countermeasures), and 516 (GX2040 Vision), but no major policy changes were made from the original drafts.

The increase in the Earth's average surface temperature has exceeded scientists' projections, with a reported increase of 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels in 2024. The annual increase of whole-atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration was also recorded as the largest in the past 14 years. Already, many disasters caused by climate change have been reported worldwide, resulting in many casualties. This will continue to worsen in the future, and so it is essential to create a path for rapid significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and a shift away from fossil fuels, since the measures taken now will have a great impact on the survival of future generations in the long term.

However, these three plans and policies are “decarbonization” in name only, and do not deviate in any way from the status quo of maintaining and preserving nuclear and coal-fired power generation, and fall far short of significant reductions needed.

The 7th Strategic Energy Plan does not reflect the internationally agreed upon phase-out of coal-fired power generation and has also further obscured Japan’s lack of consistency with its international commitments. It lumps together gas, coal and oil as “thermal power generation” in the 2040 energy mix without presenting targets for each fossil fuel, and leaves the way open for the continuation of coal-fired power generation, relying on the use of ammonia co-firing, CCS, and other technologies not yet put into practice. Additionally, the government has removed the phrase “reduction of dependence on nuclear power” from the previous 6th Strategic Energy Plan and instead has shifted its strategy to “maximum utilization” of nuclear power. Regarding renewable energy, which should be given top priority, the text “given top priority as a principle” was deleted, and the target was set at 40-50% by 2040, an extremely low figure.

The Plan for Global Warming Countermeasures presented a target for 2035, which will be the nationally determined contributions (NDC) target to be submitted to the UN, but it is only a 60% reduction from 2013 levels (about 54% reduction from 2019 levels), which is an extremely unambitious target even compared to the global 60% reduction from 2019 levels (about 66% reduction from 2013 levels) required for the 1.5°C target indicated by the IPCC. Additionally, many objections to the inadequate targets set by the government were raised at the Council meetings where this was discussed, and there were calls for further meetings to address the concerns expressed in public comments, but the government silenced such opinions and reached this decision without deliberation.

The GX2040 Vision was drafted by the GX Implementation Council under the Prime Minister's Office, whose members are biased toward certain vested interests in the business community. The policy strongly reflects the opinions of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) and the former general electric utilities (TEPCO and other major electric utilities), and like the Strategic Energy Plan, it has become a framework that allows large amounts of money to be channeled to nuclear power plants, fossil fuel-related industries, and other businesses that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases.

Already, schemes that will increase the burden on the public as part of the policy of maintaining and expanding nuclear and fossil fuel power generation, such as the Capacity Market and the Long-term Decarbonized Power Source Auction, have been quietly decided upon by METI's advisory councils, without any deliberation in the Diet. There is concern that in the future, important matters will continue to be decided at the discretion of the administration, without deliberation in the Diet and with little exposure to the public.

Kiko Network clearly opposes the three plans and policies passed in this Cabinet decision and hopes for a society where sustainable climate and energy policies are decided through thorough debate in the Diet and new processes for citizen participation.

Public Comments

Results of public comments (Japanese)

第７次エネルギー基本計画案
7th Strategic Energy Plan

地球温暖化対策計画案
Plan for Global Warming Countermeasures

GX2040ビジョン案
GX 2040 Vision

Announcements from Government

METI: Cabinet Decision on the Seventh Strategic Energy Plan

環境省（Ministry of the Environment）地球温暖化対策計画の閣議決定及び日本の次期NDC（温室効果ガス削減目標）の国連気候変動枠組条約事務局への提出について
NDC（PDF, English）

Reference

[Opinion Brief] Comments on the report of Japan's national greenhouse gas emission reduction targets (NDC)　(December 3, 2024)