Zoom in! Japanese-German Energy Transition Talks on Carbon Pricing
The first session of "Zoom In! - Japanese German Energy Transition Talks" took place on the 6th of July! We want to thank all participants and panelist for their insightful presentations and the active discussion regarding the current state and future prospects of carbon pricing in Germany/ the EU and Japan. The next session will take place on 21 September 2023 on the nexus between circular economy and climate protection.
In the first session, Theresa Wildgrube (adelphi) outlined the guiding framework for the EU-ETS and the German national ETS as a major driver for decarbonization throughout many sectors. Moreover, she discussed the future alignment between the national mechanism and the EU-ETS 2 in the future. Both mechanisms can be understood as umbrella policies for emission reductions alongside sectoral policies (mainly support for RES, EE and related infrastructure), driving the shift towards a low-carbon economy in Europe. Nonetheless, she stressed that social impacts need to be considered in the implementation and price stabilization mechanisms and the redirection of revenues towards social climate funds have to be in place to shield and support vulnerable groups and small enterprises.
Dr. Naoki Matsuo (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)) positioned Japan's new carbon pricing policy as a new funding instrument for industrial policy within the Green Transformation (GX) Strategy, rather focused on financing climate industrial measures and R&D of new technologies, than actual emission reduction through price effects. Dr. Matsuo further outlined the regulatory framework of the the GX ETS (in a pilot phase until 2025). He expressed his concerns about the potential limitations due to voluntary participation and target setting by participating companies. Nonetheless, he pointed out, that industry had welcomed this approach so far. In the following discussion, the European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) was not seen as an imminent threat to Japanese industry, but with potential increasing effects in the future phase of the CBAM mechanism, extending e.g. to scope 3 emissions.
"Zoom In! - Japanese-German Energy Transition Talks" is jointly organized by the The Japanese-German Energy Partnership Team – German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan (AHK Japan), OAV - German Asia-Pacific Business Association and adelphi – and the German-Japanese Energy Transition Council (GJETC). In the respective sessions, which will take place online in the coming months, current developments related to the energy transition in both countries are highlighted and discussed.