Open Energy

The date of the original article (mandarin version) release: 2022/01/27

Author / Han Wang & Yi-Jun Shih, Assistant Researcher, RSPRC.

Figures & design / Heng Liu & Jing Ying Zhang, Research Assistant, RSPRC.

 

 

At the turn of the year, this is an important time to review what has been accomplished and built upon our past accomplishments. In 2021, in addition to the global COVID-19 pandemic, climate disasters were also rampant around the world. For example, heat waves occurred in North America; floods raged in Western Europe and Henan, China; and the worst drought in 56 years happened in central and southern Taiwan. The above-mentioned events are confirmed that the climate crisis is imminent. Leaders of various countries have successively announced the carbon neutrality goal and actively formulated a road map for achieving net zero emissions. What progress have those countries made since they declared carbon neutrality goals one year ago?

This article proceeds in three parts. In the first, we review the development status and features in various countries' net-zero and carbon neutrality policies over the past year. In the second, we introduce the 2021 "G20 Zero Carbon Policy Scoreboard" released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) to examine the performance and ranking of G20 countries on zero carbon policies. In the third, we take a further step to discuss the progress and effectiveness of how Japan and South Korea, the two Asian countries appeared in the top quartile among G20 economies, have been promoting their carbon neutrality policies.

 

I. The development status of net zero/carbon neutrality policies in various countries

The two most anticipated climate-related reports in 2021 were Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector, published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in May 2021 and Assessment Report 6 (AR6) published in August 2021 by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC clearly pointed out that as global warming intensifies, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events confirm that extreme weather will become the new normal (科技部等，2021). The IEA emphasizes that it will be very difficult for the climate pledges by governments to date — even if fully achieved— fall well short of what is required to net zero by 2050 and hopes that governments will take strong and credible policy actions (IEA, 2021).

Currently, 137 countries or regions have declared their commitments to net zero emissions, covering 88% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 90% of global gross domestic product (GDP) (Net Zero Tracker, 2022). This was a substantial increase from 2020, when the global net zero commitments covered only 61% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 68% of global GDP (The Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit and Oxford Net Zero, 2021). However, all countries' net zero goals are not consistent, and their definitions towards net zero and pathways vary. Therefore, this article will present profiles of countries that have declared their goals of net zero or carbon neutrality from "net zero target timetable, type, status", "coverage of greenhouse gases", "whether carbon emissions from overseas aviation and shipping are included", "whether there is a carbon offset mechanism and net zero policy plan." and "whether they are members of the Climate Alliance". Currently, 15 countries or regions (EU) have passed legislation containing a net zero goal, 30 countries have included a net zero goal in policy documents, 15 countries have made statements or commitments to a net zero goal, and 69 countries have still been proposed or discussing whether a net zero goal should be set. In addition, there were 8 countries declaring themselves to have achieved a net zero goal (see Figure 1).

It is worth noting that on the national level, 15 countries, including Norway, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Mexico that had originally declared their net zero goals through inclusion in policy documents or policy agendas are no longer in the declaration ranks. Nevertheless, it does not mean that these countries have not yet set a reduction target by 2050. For example, Norway has still set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% by 2050 compared with the levels in 1990 (Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, 2019:5). In addition, joining the ranks of declaring net zero goals last year where many of the top 20 greenhouse gas emitting countries or newly industrialized countries, including Australia, the United States, Russia, India, and Brazil as well as Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia and so on (Net Zero Tracker, 2022).

Moreover, commitments to net zero emissions has no longer stayed at the national level, but expanded to include those "non-national level" units such as cities, regions, businesses, and higher education institutions. In response to the "Race to Net Zero Campaign" launched by UNFCCC, there have been 1,049 cities, 67 regions, 5,235 businesses, 441 of the biggest investors and 1,039 higher education institutions joining the initiative for net zero emissions. Collectively these actors now cover nearly 25% global CO2 emissions and over 50% GDP (UNFCCC, 2022).

 

Figure 1 Profile of countries with declaration of the goal of net zero/carbon neutrality

Source: (The Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit et al., 2022).

Explanation:

1. Compiled by the RSPRC from Net Zero Tracker (statistics as of January 25, 2022).

2. As Net Zero Tracker has not yet added relevant statistics for Taiwan, the RSPRC has added relevant data for Taiwan after compiling the relevant data.

 

II. Among the G20 countries, Japan and South Korea have remarkable achievements towards "carbon neutrality"

According to the G20 Zero Carbon Policy Scoreboard report compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance in early 2021, we can observe the development priorities of the 20 largest economies.The 19 individual countries of G20 covered in this report have been scored out of 100% based on 122 qualitative and quantitative metrics ，that encompassed the number and types of policies implemented, this report examines the "robustness" of each country's policies in six sectors–power, fossil fuel decarbonization, transport, buildings, industry and the circular economy. The evaluation took account of the transparency and predictability of the policy-making process, completeness of the policy mix, ambition and achievability of targets, and impact (Bloomberg, 2021:1-2).

The top five in the comprehensive scoreboard are Germany, France, South Korea, the United Kingdom and Japan, with an average score of 67%. All these countries have adopted relevant measures in renewable power and energy storage equipment and set up their net zero emission goals by 2050, with some having even enacted relevant laws (Ibid.).

 

Figure 2 Diagram of the G20 Zero Carbon Policy Scoreboard

Source: (Bloomberg, 2021: 2).

 

Countries in second quantile (Italy, Canada, China, the United States, and Australia) all have strong decarbonization policies in at least one specific sector. The United States ranks first in fossil fuel decarbonization, and China ranks first in transportation (tied with France and Germany). However, the policy mix of these governments is generally incomplete, with an average score of 50% (Ibid.).

With an average score of 38%, India, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa and Turkey have less support for decarbonization in terms of quantity and policy quality, especially outside the power sector (e.g., industry and circular economy). Countries in the bottom quartile, Argentina, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Russia, have much room for improvement, with an average score of only 28%, reflecting the lack of adequate measures in these countries (Ibid.).

The assessed G20 countries face different challenges in decarbonizing and adopt different policies to deal with them. The research report also suggests that the policy goals of these countries should be combined with subsequent policies, so as to avoid the situation in which the goals cannot be implemented due to the lack of relevant follow-up fiscal measures, and the policies should be adjusted in line with the development of new technologies (Bloomberg, 2021: 8-9).

 

III. What progress have Japan and South Korea made since they declared carbon neutrality goals one year ago?

Looking at the "G20 Zero Carbon Policy Scoreboard" released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance in 2021, we can see that Japan and South Korea are the only two Asian countries to enter the top quantile. Therefore, this article would like to discuss that one year after Japan and South Korea announced their carbon-neutral goals in October 2020, what were the focus points of their respective carbon neutrality practices?

 

A. Japan: From the central to the local, the academic community is also involved.

In compliance with the global net zero policy, Japan's prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, declared on October 26, 2020 that Japan would aim to achieve carbon neutrality by reducing greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible by 2050, so as to achieve the goal of a carbon-free society (首相官邸，2020).

 

1. Progress in legal and institutional reforms

Japan's prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, first announced and then proposed the medium-term (2030) goal for carbon neutrality and passed it into law. On April 22, 2021, he proposed emission reduction targets that Japan should reduce GHG emissions 46% by 2030 compared with fiscal 2013 levels on the 45th "Global Warming Prevention Headquarters Meeting."^[1] Also, he declared that domestic ministries would jointly promote the use of renewable energy and other low-carbon energy, encourage investment, support regional decarbonization, establish a green international financial center, and support Asian countries toward decarbonization and transformation (地球温暖化対策推進本部，2021).

Japan's House of Councilors has clearly legislated the objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 through passing the amendment to the "Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures" (地球温暖化対策推進法) on May 26, 2021 (環境省，2021a). The House of Councilors also released the revised version of the "Green Growth Strategy", explaining how Japan's industrial development should move towards carbon neutrality.

 

2. Towards carbon neutrality: zero carbon cities in Japan

To achieve carbon neutrality, the Ministry of the Environment has designated "local governments that have announced a reduction of carbon dioxide to almost zero by 2050" as the 2050 zero carbon cities.

Before October 26, 2020, only 166 local governments announced the goal of zero carbon cities, but the number of zero carbon cities has been increasing rapidly after the Japanese Prime Minister announced carbon neutrality. According to statistics, by the end of December 2021, there were 514 local governments (40 prefectures, 306 cities, 14 Special wards (tokubetsu-ku), 130 towns, and 24 villages), including Tokyo and Kyoto that have registered themselves to be zero carbon cities, whose total population was about 112.5 million, accounting for 88.5% of Japan's total population (環境省，2021b).

 

Figure 3 Map of Japan's zero-carbon cities

Source: (環境省，2021c)

 

3. How to form a social consensus

(1) Actions of industries in carbon neutrality

Japan's largest comprehensive economic organization "KEIDANREN (Japan Business Federation)" (経団連) proposed the 2050 carbon neutrality action plan and its four pillars in mid-2021. The first pillar is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in sectors of industry, energy transition, commerce, and transportation. The second pillar is to actively communicate and raise social awareness of the products and services that contribute to reducing emissions. The third pillar is to emphasize technology transfer from Japanese industries to overseas so as to promote international carbon reduction contributions. The last is technological innovation and development (経団連，2021).

 

Table 1 Four pillars of the industrial carbon neutrality plan

First pillar	Reduce carbon emissions
Second pillar	Strengthen cooperation among actors (emphasis on the carbon reduction contribution of low-carbon, energy-efficient products and services)
Third pillar	Promote international contributions (for development and support of products and technologies to the whole world)
Fourth pillar	Development of new technologies for carbon neutrality by 2050 (including transition technology)

Source: Compiled by the RSPRC from (経団連，2021).

 

(2) The role of universities in carbon neutrality

On July 29, 2021, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of the Environment jointly established the University Coalition to achieve carbon neutrality, with a total of 188 universities participating (経産省，2021). Through educational research and social contribution activities, the universities will create and spread scientific knowledge that underpins national and regional policy and innovation.

There are five working groups in the University Coalition. The Campus Zero Carbon Working Group is committed to formulating policies and roadmaps by 2025; the Regional Zero Carbon Working Group is for cooperation between local governments and universities and the development of local project research; the main responsibility of the Innovation Working Group is to strengthen the cooperation between industry, government, academia and the private sector and promote research and development; the Human Resources Development Working Group focuses on discussing what talents are needed for carbon neutrality and develops talent training programs and teaching materials; the International Cooperation Working Group acts as a bridge connecting Japan and the world for the development of carbon neutrality (文部科学省，2021).

 

Figure 4 Organizational Chart of University Coalition

Source: Reproduced by RSPRC from (文部科學省，2021).

 

B. South Korea: To accelerate transition to carbon neutrality starting from 2022

After President Moon Jae-in made the "2050 Carbon Neutrality" declaration for the first time during his speech at the National Assembly on October 28, 2020, South Korea released its "2050 Carbon Neutral Strategy" in December 2020. What progress has South Korea made on the road to carbon neutrality in the past year? What are the challenges South Korea facing in transition?? This article attempts to answer these questions.

 

Accelerate the pace of carbon neutrality policy and legislation

Since President Moon Jae-in announced the "2050 Carbon-Neutral Goal" in October 2020, South Korea has also accelerated the pace of enhancing carbon neutrality- policies and legislation. As far as the government organization level is concerned, South Korea set up the "2050 Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth Commission" under the President in May 2021 as a vital role to lead South Korea towards a carbon neutral society. Its main function is to implement the deliberation and evaluation of major carbon neutrality policies and plans and to communicate with all sectors of society (탄소중립위원회，2022). In terms of policy measures, the Korean government released the "2050 Carbon Neutral Strategy" in December 2020, and then announced the "2050 Carbon neutrality scenarios (final)" and "Upward Adjustment of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals by 2030" in 2021. The Commission has not only set two scenarios of carbon neutrality^[2], but also raised its ambition to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (40% below the 2018 level) in its NDCs As far as legislative measures are concerned, the Korean National Assembly successively passed in 2021 the "Hydrogen Economy Promotion and Hydrogen Safety Management Act" ("Hydrogen Act"), amendments to the " Act on Promotion of Development and Distribution of Environment-friendly Motor Vehicles" and the Framework Act on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth (or "Carbon Neutrality Act"). With the promulgation of the Hydrogen Economy Promotion and Hydrogen Safety Management Act and the Carbon Neutrality Act, South Korea has not only become the first country in the world to formulate the Hydrogen Act, but also the 14th country to enact the Carbon Neutrality Act after the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.

 

Slow progress in renewable energy policy

The core issue of carbon neutrality is to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. However, South Korea is also faced with the problems of "insufficient renewable power generation capacity" and "electricity prices fail to reflect the electricity generation costs ", resulting in slow progress in the renewable energy policy, which also shows that the realization of the carbon neutrality is not as easy as we expected.

Regardless of whether South Korea chooses option A or B of its carbon neutrality scenarios, the proportion of renewable energy power generation needs to be increased to 70.8% (Option A) or 60.9% (Option B), which is equivalent to Korea's renewable energy generation capacity increasing to at least 736 to 889.8 GW by 2050, but this would be only possible if solar and wind installation capacity (18,968 MW in 2020) expands at a rate of increasing more than 10 large nuclear power plants (1,400 MW) per year (한겨레，2021). In recent years, the progress of wind and solar power has not been as expected. In particular, the offshore wind power has encountered problems such as cumbersome administrative procedures and residents' opposition. For this reason, South Korea proposed to amend the law to establish a "Wind Power Generation Commission" and introduce one-stop-shop service, aiming to shorten the development process to 3 to 5 years (에너지데일리，2021).

On the other hand, even though South Korea has not made good progress in its renewable energy policy as expected, its successful promotion of electricity price reform has laid a foundation for the development of renewable energy in the future. The current electricity price in South Korea is far below the average electricity price level of those countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).^[3] Low electricity price policies not only obstruct renewable energy enter the electricity market, but also hinder the investment into future electricity demand management. With the expansion of new renewable energy generation facilities for solar and wind power and the like as well as the implementation of gas-fired replacement of coal-fired power generation, it is expected that the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and the power generation fuel cost will also increase. In order to make the electricity price actually reflect the cost of electricity generation, the Korean government decided to introduce a "fuel cost index system" in 2020.^[4] Korea has raised the electricity price by ₩3 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in October 2019, and the monthly electricity cost of each household would increase to ₩1,050 (350 kWh/month per household on average) (한겨레，2021).

 

Social consensus on carbon neutrality has been strengthened, but the SMEs still lack sufficient awareness

The goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 is not only related to the country's overall energy transition and industrial planning but will also affect companies and the general public. Every citizen needs to accept the inconvenience brought by renewable energy production and popularization, the electricity price hikes due to the higher operating costs brought by energy transition, and so on. Therefore, the Korean government has also listed "improving citizens' awareness of a carbon-neutral society" as one of the ten issues in its carbon neutral strategy.

The Korean people's views on the climate crisis have changed significantly. This is also an important social driving force for the government to achieve carbon neutrality. According to the "2022 Korea Climate Crisis Report" released by the Korean media Sisa IN in January 2022, up to 82% of the respondents were concerned about the climate crisis, and more than half of the respondents had some understanding of the climate-related terms that have frequently appear in the media, such as "climate change" and "carbon neutrality." In addition, there is a high social consensus in Korea on the decommissioning of coal power plants. Even taking the employment and livelihood issues of coal power plant workers into account, as many as 68.9% of the respondents agreed to shut down coal power plants. Furthermore, 48.4% of the respondents said that "it is acceptable that the electricity price would be more than doubled in 10 years due to the introduction of renewable energy", and more than half of them said that "it is acceptable to increase the monthly electricity bill by up to ₩10,000" (Note: The average monthly electricity bill for a household in South Korea is ₩55,000), and even more interesting, in terms of the age group of respondents, those between the ages of 40 and 50 were more willing to pay for the climate crisis and to bear property damage because of their strong personal economic foundation. It is worth noting that the social acceptance of renewable energy facilities was quite high, with more than half of the respondents saying that "even if house prices may fall, it is still acceptable to have renewable energy facilities near their communities" (시사 IN，2022).

Although South Korea has announced its carbon-neutral goal for a year, SMEs still lack awareness of the decarbonization policy. According to the "2050 Carbon Neutrality-Related Small and Medium Enterprise Survey" report released in 2021 by Korea Federation of SMEs(중소기업중앙회), more than half of the surveyed companies (352 companies) were unaware that the government had announced carbon-neutral goals and set national greenhouse gas reduction standards for 2030, and only 13.9% of SMEs had formulated carbon neutral policy response plans (중소기업중앙회, 2021). South Korean SMEs found it difficult to formulate carbon neutrality response plans due to the lack of funds and manpower to respond to policy changes, the lack of time to understand carbon neutrality, and the lack of incentives for low-carbon product/process engineering transitions (Ibid.). In the survey, 95.7% of SMEs believed that the additional cost of "carbon neutrality" would be a business burden for the company, with the estimated costs, ranked from high to low, being "facilities replacement and installation cost" (63.1%), "raw material price" (18.5%), and "electricity price" (12.5%) (Ibid.).

 

IV. Conclusion

Looking back at the development status and characteristics of the net zero or carbon neutrality policies of various countries in 2021, you can see that the number of countries declaring net zero or carbon neutrality increased significantly. Over 135 countries and regions have declared their commitment to net zero emissions, covering 88% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 90% of global GDP. Taiwan has also caught up with the international trend of net zero, starting to draft in 2021 the Draft of" Climate Change Adaptation Act", in which the net zero goal by 2050 is clearly listed and announced. It is worth noting that the goal of net zero emissions has become a global consensus and is no longer limited to the national level. Non-state actors such as cities and enterprises are also actively participating in net zero initiatives and actions. In addition, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance's "G20 Zero Carbon Policy Scoreboard" report, the industrialized countries such as Germany, France, South Korea, the United Kingdom and Japan not only have relevant measures in renewable energy and energy storage equipment but have also incorporated the 2050 net zero emission goals into law. Among them, Japan and South Korea are the only two Asian countries to enter the top quantile.

Looking at the progress of Japan and South Korea's carbon neutrality policies, there are remarkable things that Taiwan can emulate. In addition to the goal of promoting carbon neutrality at the national level, Japan has also encouraged local governments to propose carbon reduction goals and has established a coalition in the education system to create more room for development through the promotion of local and educational research. South Korea has been accelerating the pace of carbon neutrality policy and legislation, becoming the first country in the world to formulate the Hydrogen Economy Act and the 14th country in the world to enact carbon neutrality legislation after the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. Meanwhile, South Korea has been facing difficulties in promoting the carbon neutrality policy, such as the slow progress of renewable energy policy and the lack of awareness of the decarbonization policy by small and medium-sized enterprises. However, the public's awareness of the climate crisis and carbon neutrality has gradually increased, which has become an important social driving force for the Korean government to move on its path to carbon neutrality.

 

 

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