This is a critical year for Japan’s energy policy. In May, the Japanese government began deliberations to revise a document that will be the lynchpin of its strategy over the next decade, and beyond: the 7th Strategic Energy Plan.
Not only will this set out the country’s energy roadmap, it will inform its climate targets under the Paris Agreement to keep global temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius and shape its industrial policy.
But before deliberations gain momentum, the government must first commit to the hard work of institutional reform. An independent body with a mission to ensure science-based climate considerations should be established to oversee policymaking and whose membership should not be biased toward carbon- and energy-intensive industries.