The government will try to cut the ratio of energy consumption to gross domestic product by 30 percent by 2030 to ensure the nation will have a stable supply of energy amid intensifying competition for resources, sources said Thursday.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plans to release the outline of Japan's new energy strategy around March and will ask the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy to flesh out a long-term policy possibly by June, the sources said.
Japan's ratio of primary energy consumption to GDP is already the smallest in the world because of conservation measures spurred by the oil crises of the 1970s, the ministry said.
This has improved 30 percent over the past 30 years, and Tokyo aims to further accelerate energy-saving efforts by boosting technological innovations and enhancing energy efficiency, the sources said.
The new energy strategy, which will be used to revise the basic energy plan, will also involve lowering Japan's dependency on oil and using more nuclear power.
In the transportation sector, which is almost entirely reliant on oil, the government will try to reduce the dependency ratio to about 80 percent by trying such alternatives as fuel cells and plant-derived ethanol.