We have expanded the list of climate policies we assess company engagement with to incorporate land-use related policy, referring to legislative or regulatory measures to enhance and protect ecosystems and land where carbon is being stored. Assessments under this category are currently underweighted in terms of their contribution to the overall company metrics. This weighting will be progressively increased over the next 6 months.
We adjusted the terminology used to describe the queries running down the left-hand side of our scoring matrix and added additional explanatory text to the info-boxes. This has no impact on the scores and methodology. It has been done following user feedback to improve clarity.
Climate Lobbying Overview: Japan Coal Frontier Organization (JCOAL) appears to have limited and negative engagement on climate and energy policy in Japan. It appears to strongly support a greater role for coal in the energy mix than advised by the IPCC.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: JCOAL appears to have broadly negative top-line messaging on climate change. On the Clean Coal Day website, accessed in August 2022, it emphasized that carbon- neutral does not mean to “stop using” fossil resources, but to balance CO2 emissions and absorption, without clear communication on the need for drastic actions to combat climate change. In a position statement published in September 2021, JCOAL suggested that not all countries will be able to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and that the environment surrounding energy in each country is. In the Keisan Shinpou news paper published in September 2021, the chairman of JCOAL appeared to support continuous use of coal in the energy mix, by utilizing HELE and CCUS technology and that use of coal will contribute to achieving SDGs goals.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: JCOAL has transparent positions on, or engagement with, climate-related regulations.
Positioning on Energy Transition: JCOAL appears to have negative positions on the energy transition. In December 2021, in the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI)’s resource and fuel committee, JCOAL supported a continued role for coal in the energy mix dependent on the deployment of CCS, emphasizing that during the transition period, utilizing existing coal infrastructure is “the best policy” from the perspective of public burden. In policy proposals published on its website in February 2021, JCOAL continued to suggest the long-term role for coal is desirable in a future energy mix and called for the construction of more efficient coal-fired power plants to replace inefficient facilities. This position was reiterated in the JCOAL Chairman’s statement published on its website, accessed in June 2022.
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.