Climate Lobbying Overview: Japan Climate Leaders’ Partnership (JCLP) has engaged positively and actively on a number of climate change and energy regulations and policies in Japan, representing a positive voice to achieve the long-term goals set forth in the Paris Agreement. It has stated support for introducing carbon pricing, renewable energy legislation and corporate Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).

Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: JCLP appears to have positive top-line messaging on climate change. In March 2021, JCLP urged the Japanese government to set a domestic GHG emissions reduction target (NDC) of 50% and above by 2030, in line with the IPCC’s 1.5°C target. Previously in April 2020, it had expressed concerns over the low NDC commitment announced by the Japanese government, stating the GHG emission reduction target was not sufficient in meeting goal to limit global warming to well below the 2℃ (1.5℃). In October 2021, JCLP advocated for policymakers to increase the ambition of government regulation on climate change in its position statement on the energy mix. JCLP had also advocated to policymakers on the needs for government policy or intervention to promote carbon pricing, during the Ministry of Environment’s Subcommittee on Utilization of Carbon Pricing in March 2022.

Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: JCLP appears to have positive and relatively high engagement with climate-related regulations. As a member of Ministry of Environment’s Subcommittee on the Utilization of Carbon Pricing since 2019, JCLP has reiterated this position in the meetings, suggesting in 2019 that it will increase decarbonization innovation. In a meeting held in February 2021, JCLP also supported carbon pricing that is proportionate to the emissions of the product and that specific measures should be discussed for its introduction. In the same meeting, JCLP has also advocated for implementation of social mechanisms, emphasizing that self-regulation is not enough. In its proposals on the economic measures to facilitate the recovery from the Coronavirus crisis published in 2020 on its website, JCLP advocated for a timely introduction of carbon pricing. In May 2021, JCLP appeared to support specific renewable energy legislation to allow for easier purchase of renewable energy in its policy proposal submitted to METI and other key ministries. In February 2021, JCLP also submitted a policy proposal to METI, suggesting renewable energy supply should be maximized by creating an easier and fairer environment for new businesses to enter the energy market. In July 2022, JCLP published the position paper on ensuring diversity of renewable energy options, and called for the development of a policy environment to enable corporate PPA to promote renewable energy distribution over the country so that consumers would be able to procure renewable energy economically and quickly. In November 2022, JCLP published the position paper on Carbon Pricing, stating support for carbon pricing including carbon tax, carbon boarder adjustment mechanisms and ETS, to fund to finance the energy efficiency technologies and decarbonization of the economy.

Positioning on Energy Transition: JCLP appears to have a positive position on the energy transition. In October 2020, through their position statement on the national energy mix, JCLP advocated for a phase out of inefficient coal power plants, and an energy mix that does not include construction of new coal plants. JCLP has called for an increase of renewable energy in the energy mix from 24% to 50%, through its position statement submitted to the government in March 2021. In May 2021, JCLP published an opinion paper and demanded the government to intervene to transition transport sector, especially the trucks to ZEV. In June 2022, JCLP has co-signed the message to the government, advocating that Japan should accelerate the development of domestically produced renewable energy, which will not be effected by the geopolitical issue.

InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q4 2022.