RE100 corporate initiative calls on Japan to triple renewables capacity by 2035

TOKYO (Reuters) - RE100, a global corporate initiative to foster renewable power procurement, on Tuesday called on the Japanese government to take urgent and concrete steps to triple its renewable electricity capacity by 2035 from 2022 levels.

Japan is currently working on its next basic energy plan, a key long-term strategy for the resource-poor country aimed at balancing energy security and decarbonisation to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

The RE100 recommended that Japan set a target in the upcoming energy plan to triple installed renewable capacity from 121 gigawatts (GW) in 2022 to 363 GW by 2035, al the latest, it said in a statement.

Its policy recommendations also include a call on the government to help more renewable energy projects get off the ground, reduce grid connection times for new renewables projects, and mobilise 17.9-18.1 trillion yen ($112.32-$113.58 billion) in public and private investment between 2025 and 2030 towards renewables and related technologies.

The initiative, which says it has over 400 members globally, said half of them were active in Japan, with 87 headquartered there. It said its members ranked Japan as the second most challenging market for procuring renewable power due to high costs and limited supply. RE100 said those with operations in Japan now met just 25% of their electricity needs with renewables there, half the global average.

More than 100 countries, including Japan, pledged to triple the world's renewable energy capacity by 2030 at the United Nations COP28 climate summit in Dubai last year, as a route to cut the share of fossil fuels in the world's energy production.

"Now those commitments need to be met by concrete action, to rapidly increase Japan's installed renewables capacity," Ollie Wilson, the head of RE100, said in the statement.

($1 = 159.3600 yen)

(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)