Nikkei news agency reports that major speech expected next week that will see Japan match the EU in formally setting an economy-wide net zero target
Momentum ahead of the crucial COP26 Summit in Glasgow next year appears to be building fast. Just weeks after the Chinese government stunned observers by announcing a target to deliver net zero emissions by 2060 at the latest, the Japanese government is reportedly poised to confirm its own net zero target for mid-century.
The Nikkei news agency reported this morning that the new target is set to be unveiled in a speech to lawmakers next week by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
Japan will reduce overall emissions to zero and realise a 'carbon-free' society in 2050, Suga reportedly plans to say in an address on Monday.
The new target will be followed by a raft of "concrete measures" to deliver decarbonisation across the economy, Nikkei reported.
Specifically, a major revision to the country's energy plan is expected next summer, which is likely to drastically accelerate the roll out of clean technologies. Currently, Japan plans to source up to 22 per cent of its power from nuclear plants and a further 22 to 24 per cent from renewables by 2030, but that would still leave the country sourcing the majority of its power from fossil fuels by the end of the decade.
The new target would represent a major diplomatic breakthrough, given the Japanese government's prior reluctance to strengthen its goal to reduce emissions by 80 per cent against 1990 levels by 2050, which was submitted under the Paris Agreement.
The country has faced long-standing calls from campaigners and other governments to strengthen its long term targets, which have only intensified in the wake of the EU confirming its own net zero target for 2050.
However, Japan at first rejected such calls when it submitted an updated national climate action plan to the UN ahead of the COP26 Summit that critics branded as "essentially unchanged" from the version put forward at the 2015 Paris Summit.
Moreover, while the country has emerged as a clean tech hub it has also faced criticism for continuing to finance new coal power capacity both at home and overseas.
However, Suga's first address to Japan's Parliament looks set to herald a drastic upgrade in the country's decarbonisation ambitions.
As well as helping to catalyse a new wave of low carbon investment in one of the world's most influential economies, the target will fuel hopes that a major new wave of net zero commitments can be secured ahead of next year's COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow.
The EU and UK have both already adopted binding net zero targets, while Democrat Presidential candidate Joe Biden has repeatedly stressed that if he is elected the US will both remain in the Paris Agreement and introduce its own net zero goal. Combined with China's new net zero goal and Japan's mooted target, it means that all of the world's four largest economies could have net zero targets and comprehensive decarbonisation strategies in place by the time world leaders gather in Glasgow for next year's UN Climate Summit.
At the same time the growing number of net zero targets from corporate and regional, city, and state governments means that over half of GDP is already estimated to be covered by some form of net zero goal.