Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: Renewable Energy Association for Sustainable Power Supply (REASP) is actively and positively engaged on climate policy in Japan. It advocates for offshore wind policies, more ambitious renewable energy targets, and measures that extend the lifecycle of renewable projects. However, while supporting solar panel recycling, it appears unsupportive of making it mandatory.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: REASP has positive albeit limited top-line messaging on climate policy. In its Vision 2050 dated November 2021, available on its website, REASP acknowledged climate science. It supported achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 in its December 2024 position paper on the 7th Strategic Energy Plan. REASP has not explicitly supported the Paris Agreement or the need for government regulation to respond to climate change.
Engagement with Climate Related Policy: REASP has positive engagement with climate related policy in Japan, mainly supporting renewable energy policies and targets.
At the Basic Policy Subcommittee of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) in August 2024, REASP called for doubling renewable energy capacity by 2035, increasing it 2.5 times by 2040, and tripling it by 2050, while emphasizing the need for additional measures to meet the existing 2030 target.
REASP also urged the government to adopt an ambitious offshore wind introduction target in the METI Basic Policy Subcommittee in August 2024, and in a June 2024 policy proposal on offshore wind published on its website, proposed measures including centralized information systems and increased budget for awareness campaigns at national and prefectural levels.
In a July 2024 METI committee, REASP proposed measures to extend the lifecycle of post-feed-in-tariff (FIT) projects, and measures to aid the issuance of non-fossil electricity certificates by feed-in-premium (FIP) projects to maintain a large capacity of renewable energy generation. REASP also advocated for deregulation and tax revisions that would support renewable projects in a joint opinion paper submitted to Aomori Prefecture’s Expert Council in December 2024.
REASP supported measures for solar panel recycling at a METI committee in October 2024. However, at a METI committee in July 2023, while supporting measures to reduce, reuse, and recycle solar panels, REASP also appeared unsupportive of making recycling mandatory due to cost.
REASP appeared to support a GHG reduction target of 60% by 2035 (from 2019 levels, equivalent to a 66% reduction from 2013 levels) in the August 2024 METI Basic Policy Subcommittee.
Positioning on Energy Transition: REASP has positive engagement on the energy transition. In its June 2024 position paper on offshore wind published on its website, REASP supported the transition from fossil fuels to renewables under Japan’s Green Transformation (GX) plan. In a December 2024 position paper published on its website, it called for stringent policy measures to ramp up renewables and for a general decrease in thermal power generation under the 7th Strategic Energy Plan.
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 association’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q1 (February) 2025.