TOKYO: Japan's powerful business lobby Keidanren is dominated by energy-intensive sectors that represent less than 10 per cent of the economy, resulting in national policies that favour coal and hindering attempts to combat climate change, a new study said.
Lobbying and consultation by business groups will be critical next year when the government reviews its strategic energy plan.The Keidanren's influence was seen last year when it argued that a target proposed by the government to reduce emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 was"extremely ambitious" and pushed for any new target to be a"vision", InfluenceMap said.
Keidanren said in a statement to Reuters it could not comment on the study as it had yet to formally receive a copy. But it added it had made policy commitments to a low carbon society and the government's climate goals were consistent with Paris agreement goals. Japan is also the only G7 country working on a major rollout of coal power, with companies planning to build around 20 new coal-fired plants with total capacity of about 12,000 megawatts, within a decade, a Reuters survey showed last year.
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