scholarly journals Japan’s 2014 Strategic Energy Plan: A Planned Energy System Transition

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey B. Kucharski ◽  
Hironobu Unesaki
Keyword(s):  
Energy Policy ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Industrial Structure ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Window Of Opportunity ◽  
Policy Planning ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
System Transition ◽  
Unique Aspect ◽  
Fukushima Disaster

This study is a review and analysis of the Japanese government’s 2014 Strategic Energy Plan (SEP). As the first plan to be issued after the Fukushima disaster of March 2011, the 2014 plan incorporates policies that represent the most comprehensive and systematic changes ever proposed for Japan’s energy system. The study reviews the key elements of the plan, employing a framework that explains the nature and magnitude of the changes planned for Japan’s energy system and related institutions. The analysis demonstrates that the shock of the triple disaster opened up a window of opportunity in Japan’s policy environment for a fundamental change in energy policy, allowing for major reforms to the energy industrial structure and energy institutions. A unique aspect of this study is that it draws upon in-person interviews conducted with key government officials who were directly involved in the formulation of the SEP, providing new insights into Japan’s energy policy planning process and the drivers behind the planned reforms. Given the nature and magnitude of the potential changes implied in the SEP, this paper concludes that the 2014 SEP is best understood as a comprehensive blueprint toward a major planned transition of the Japanese energy system.

scholarly journals Challenges for Integrating Strategic Environmental Assessment to Enhance Environmental Thinking: A Case Study of Taiwan Energy Policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yen-Yu Wu ◽  
Hwong-Wen Ma
Keyword(s):  
Energy Policy ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Strategic Environmental Assessment ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Policy Planning ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Need To Evaluate ◽  
Institutional Challenges

There is an increasing need to evaluate environmental impacts at higher policy planning levels, especially after the European Union (EU) strategic environmental assessment (SEA) directive proposed in 2001. However, integrating SEA and policy planning processes is challenging owing to institutional challenges and/or political problems. We aimed to explore the challenges of this integration process through in-depth interviews with core stakeholders in Taiwan energy policy making. Our results reveal three main types of challenge related to policy planning, SEA implementation, and difficulties in dealing with environmental issues. The first includes the policy planning model, transparency in the policy planning process, and controversial issues clarification; the second includes the different types of SEA purposes, unclear feedback on policy planning, and public participation limitation; the third includes a lack of knowledge of brokerage processes, scientific uncertainty, the role of the Taiwan EPA (TEPA) for environmental thinking, and the influence of local information in policy planning. The results of this study can be applied to countries that use impact-oriented SEA (currently the most common type of SEA) and consider environmental issues during the energy policy planning process.

Energy Policy in Japan: Revisiting Radical Incrementalism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Llewelyn Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Energy Policy ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Japanese Government ◽  
Sectoral Analysis ◽  
Energy Assets ◽  
Fukushima Disaster

This chapter examines major changes in Japan’s energy system, focusing on the period since the March 11 Fukushima disaster. There remain numerous opportunities to describe and explain how politics is affecting the incremental but radical changes in the Japanese energy system. While the Japanese government continues to place concerns about security of energy supplies at the center of energy policy, climate change is the defining challenge for the Japanese government, and energy use is at the center of Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions profile. This chapter offers a sectoral analysis of the direction and degree of change evident across nuclear power, renewable energy, coal, electrification, and transport. A key question is the extent to which the politics of energy is democratizing, understood both in terms of an increased ability to influence siting choices for large centralized energy assets and directly owning or using sources of distributed renewable energy such as rooftop solar power.

System Transition Concepts and Framework for Analysing Energy System Research and Governance

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Totti Könnölä ◽  
Javier Carrillo-Hermosilla ◽  
Robert P. van der Have
Keyword(s):  
Energy System ◽  
System Research ◽  
System Transition

Why Italian Nuclear Energy Policy Failed Twice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Franchino
Keyword(s):  
Energy Policy ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Nuclear Energy ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Coalition Politics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Nuclear Energy Policy ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Fukushima Disaster

The history of nuclear energy policy in Italy is characterized by major shifts. After being a world leader in nuclear energy production in the 1960s, the country stopped its programme in the 1980s. An attempt at rejuvenating and expanding nuclear energy in the early 2000s came to an end after the Fukushima disaster. In both instances a referendum was held. Party competition, coalition politics, changes in government, and Italy’s institutional features, in particular the provisions for holding referendums, are the main factors explaining these policy reversals. The chapter concludes that a relaunch of the nuclear energy programme does not seem impossible, but is unlikely for the foreseeable future.

Regional Renewable Energy Policy: A Process of Coalition Building

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah L. Mander
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Energy Policy ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Central Element ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
North West ◽  
The North

In 2003, the UK Government adopted a target to reduce carbon emissions by 60 percent by 2050, a longer term commitment than is required under the Kyoto Protocol. Given that increasing low carbon generating capacity is essential to achieve the required carbon reductions, renewable energy policies are a central element of overall climate change policy. To facilitate the building of renewable capacity, greater responsibility has been placed upon the English regions, with the advent of regional sustainable energy strategies, though there remain many profound tensions between the liberalized UK energy system and the adoption of a more strategic approach to renewable energy at the regional scale. This paper uses a ‘discourse analysis’ framework to explore wind energy policy in the North West of England from the perspective of competing coalitions. In the light of this assessment, it is concluded that the implementation of national energy policy at regional and sub-regional scales can be considered as a process of coalition building, where Government is reliant on building partnership between state and non-state actors to achieve its objectives.

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