Japan Energy Transition

Japan is the 5th largest emitter of CO2 globally and its economy remains largely dependent on fossil fuels. A long-standing area of work charts Japan’s energy transition on a cross-technology and fuel basis.

Recent Outreach

2025

25 Mar. Keynote: “The Australia Japan Energy Opportunity”. Australia-Japan Roundtable. Melbourne. [in person]

2024

28 Nov. “Japan is Co-combusting Ammonia in Coal-fired Power Stations: What is it? Will it Work, and How did it Happen? University College London. [in person]

6 Oct. “Co-combustion of Ammonia in Coal-fired Power Plants: Mapping the Innovation System”. Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex. [in person]

4 Sep. Chair. Energy Security & Transition panel. ANU 2024 Japan Update. Australian National University. [in person]

12 Apr. “Renewable Energy & Grid Transformations at Transitioning the Australia-Japan Energy Partnership – Towards a Carbon-Neutral 2050”. Australia-Japan Business Coordination Committee. Adelaide. [in person]

21 Mar. “Co-combusting Ammonia in Coal Fired Power Stations: Will it Work as a Climate Strategy?”. Research Institute for Sustainability. Berlin. [in person]

18 Mar. “Co-combusting Ammonia in Coal Fired Power Stations: Will it Work as a Climate Strategy?”. European Union Institute. Florence, Italy. [in person]

29 Feb. “The Implications of Decarbonisation in the Indo-Pacific for Australia’s Strategic Interests”. Institute for Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ). [virtual]

Research Outputs

Yuma Osaki, Llewelyn Hughes. 2024. Japan: Putting Hydrogen at the Core of its Decarbonization Strategy. Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) Discussion Paper.

Llewelyn Hughes and Christian Downie. 2023. Bilateral Finance Organizations and Stranded Asset Risk in Coal Technology Finance: the Case of Japan. Climate Policy 23 (1), 41-56. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2021.1975622

Matthew Stocks, Reza Fazeli, Llewelyn Hughes, Fiona J. Beck. 2022. Global Emissions Implications from Co-combusting Ammonia in Coal Fired Power Stations: An Analysis of the Japan-Australia Supply Chain, Journal of Cleaner Production. Vol. 336, 130092. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.130092

Eugene Gholz and Llewelyn Hughes. 2021. Market Structure and Economic Sanctions: The 2010 Rare Earth Elements Episode as a Pathway Case of Market Adjustment. Review of International Political Economy Vol. 28, No. 3: 611-634. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2019.1693411

Llewelyn Hughes. 2021. Revisiting Radical Incrementalism in Japan’s Energy Policy. In The Oxford Handbook on Japanese Politics. New York: Oxford University Press. https:/doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190050993.013.20

Llewelyn Hughes. 2019. Energy Politics and Climate Change. In The Oxford Handbook on Energy Politics. New York: Oxford University Press. https:/doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190861360.013.26

Llewelyn Hughes. 2018. Japan’s Radical Incrementalism in Power Market Regulation and Renewable Energy. In Phyllis Yoshida (ed.) Japan’s Energy Conundrum: A Discussion of Japan’s Energy Circumstances and U.S.-Japan Energy Relations (Washington DC: Sasakawa Peace Foundation, 59-67.

Llewelyn Hughes. 2016. Renegotiating Japan’s Energy Compact. In Carol Hager and Cristoph Stefes (eds.) Germany's Energy Transition: A Comparative Perspective (London: Palgrave), 165-84.

Llewelyn Hughes. 2015. Abenomics and Japan's Energy Conundrum. In Robert Pekkanen, Steven R. Reed, and Ethan Scheiner (eds.), Japan Decides 2014: The Japanese General Election (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan), 199-210.

Llewelyn Hughes. 2015. Japan's Public-Private Approach to Energy Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia. In Bo Kong and Jae H. Ku (eds.), Energy Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia (London: Routledge - Explorations in Environmental Studies Series), 62-85.

Llewelyn Hughes. 2012. Climate Converts: Institutional Redeployment and Public Investment in Energy in Japan. Journal of East Asian Studies Vol. 12, No.1, 89-118. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1598240800007633