Nordic Talks Japan: Renewable Energy — A Socially Just and Successful Energy Transition
Nordic Talks are dialogues between some of the brightest minds in the Nordics and their counterparts from around the world who are acting to make a change towards a sustainable future 🌱
On October 28th we held our first Nordic Talks Japan series event, focusing on Just Energy Transition. The event was held at Mokuzai Kaikan in Tokyo and was streamed through Zoom.
Welcome greetings were made by the Ambassador from Norway to Japan H.E. Inga M. W. Nyhamar, and closing remarks by the Ambassador from Denmark to Japan H.E. Peter Taksøe-Jensen. We invited 3 speakers: Mr. Brian Motherway, Head of Energy Efficiency at International Energy Agency (IEA), Ms. Monica Nagashima, Japan Country Director of InfluenceMap, and Dr. Håkon Sælen, Senior Researcher at CICERO. The discussion was moderated by Mr. Nobuo Tanaka, Steering Committee of ICEF and former Executive Director of IEA.
Below is a brief summary of the event (you can also watch the whole discussion here).
What is Just Transition?
To start the dialogue, each speaker gave a brief introduction to their roles towards Just Transition.
Brian Motherway from IEA shared his teams’ recent publication on Just Transition.
“Just 2 days ago IEA’s Global Commission on People-Centered Clean Energy Transition published 12 recommendations for governments to follow. It stands on 2 core values. First one is that clean energy transitions are for, and about, the people. Second is that energy transition will not succeed unless it is inclusive, equal, and fair. The recommendation consists of 4 themes: Decent jobs and workers protection, Social and economic development, Equity, social inclusion and fairness, and People as active participants. Different nations may have different pathways and energy sources, but the people-centered principle is cross-cutting.”
“The foremost recommendation would be to secure decent jobs. Just today the IEA published a new analysis that the level of investment we see in 2021 towards clean energy recovery will create 5M new jobs in an upcoming couple of years. Government policies should center those people in industry sectors which are possibly suffering, to ensure that policies are well designed so that benefits are as widely felt as possible.”
Next, Monica Nagashima from InfluenceMap, shared their findings published last August on Japanese Influence Group and Climate Policy.
“We found out that in Japan, only a narrow group of industries, representing only 10% of the GDP added value, are actively engaging in climate policy. These groups are iron and steel, electric power, automotive production, cement, electrical machinery, oil petrochemicals, and coal. Government committees’ positions have been dominated by representatives from the heavy industry, and their statements have been aligned with the fossil fuel value chain. Whereas over 70% of Japan’s GDP added value comes from the service sector, which in fact is more positive to climate actions but lacks opportunities to be active in climate policy decision making.”
“Japan’s response to TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) is a great start to move the financial sector forward, but third party evaluations are important for checking the quality of the disclosure. That is why we have the FinanceMap program. We analyze whether the disclosures are aligned with the Paris agreement and how quickly they are ready to make the transition. Nordic pension funds have shown interest in our activities in this field.”
Resistance towards Just Transition
Håkon Sælen from CICERO shared his study on resistance against decarbonization.
“There are 3 sources of resistance against green transition. First is the incumbent interest groups interested in incumbent technologies. History shows that depowering the incumbent interest is a crucial point for social transitions. The second source is the public, resisting higher energy prices, claiming for nature protection (in the context of wind power), etc. Also as workers, energy transition comes on top of globalization and automation as factors of negative impacts on their jobs. The third source of resistance is political parties opposed to the energy transition.”
“In order to solve public resistance, providing more information won’t mitigate the resistance, rather, studies show that more information can be a risk for more rejection. What is important is to design public policies that are acceptable for the public.”
Securing Diversity within Political Representatives
Motherway: “Regardless of all the commitment goals declared by governments, the greenhouse gas emissions are increasing. Although these goals are important, it is time for real action. Doing nothing is not an option.”
Nagashima agrees. “Representation among the decision-makers is important. In Japan, participants in discussions inside ministries are highly leaned to industry sectors. There are some academics from major universities, but rarely from civil society. The problem is that the grassroots movements don’t have access to key decision-makers and only those who have high expertise are allowed on the table.”
“It is great to see all the youth groups involved in climate action, but we need to encourage current business people to put up some extra seats around the table to welcome the new generation.”
Sælen: “One thing about the Nordic countries is that the labor union is well integrated into the policy-making process. This is an important factor in the decarbonization policy, and achieving just transition.”
Overcoming Nationalism
As the last topic, the issue of nationalism was raised. Quoting Yuval Noah Harari, author of “21 Lessons for the 21st Century”, the moderator pointed out that countries can be very weak to make concessions in the global context, and that we need more global-minded leaders. How can we facilitate international collaboration? Are international collaborations possible in the first place?
Motherway: “IEA has been a place where all countries learn from each other’s best practices. But at the same time, we can’t be naive. Nobody will win this race unless everybody wins it. International collaboration is at the center of this transition and IEA provides that place.”
Nagashima: “We are seeing a trend in Japan that the government and businesses are seeking more collaboration with the South East Asian countries in this field. We are trying to understand if this trend is really for net-zero emissions, or if it is a mere industrial strategy without real long-term regard for climate change. We should be careful to scrutinize international collaboration whether they are done properly.”
Sælen: “As we saw when President Trump withdrew from the Paris agreement, nationalism is indeed a potential obstacle. However, investors take international agreements seriously, and they have been successful in putting pressure on more international collaborations. Moreover, international collaborations are no longer only about countries but businesses and sub-national governments are getting more active in international negotiations, which I think optimistic of.”
While businesses are facing a demand-side driven transition, countries are agonizing over how to balance their policies and targets, carbon prices, and others.
Sælen: “It is true that consumers are providing a very strong power at the demand side, but we should not be putting the responsibility on consumers. It is the governments who are responsible for framing the policy.”
Thank you for reading to the end!
You can also listen to the whole discussion:
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