World News| U.S. energy secretary says G7 can lead global emissions reduction

OTARU (Japan) April 15 (AP) – Rich countries can lead by example in reducing carbon emissions, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, although faster action is needed to Stop global warming.

Granholm and other top energy and environment officials from advanced G7 economies are meeting this week in Hokkaido, northern Japan, on climate change, energy security and related issues.

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“That’s what we want to lead by example,” Granholm said after touring the world’s first and only liquefied hydrogen carrier, which demonstrates Japan’s ability to turn polluting coal into emission-free hydrogen. effort.

At the G-7 summit last May, member states set a shared goal of fully or largely decarbonizing electricity supply by 2035.

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The fact that carbon emissions continue to rise despite massive investments in clean energy is “very disappointing,” Granholm said. But she noted that 90% of the new electricity generation capacity that came online globally last year came from renewable sources.

“So this is happening. The tectonic plates are moving, and it has to happen faster,” she said, pointing to U.S. efforts to curb emissions from transportation and power generation, among many other steps to “decarbonize” industries.

Still, the approval of large fossil fuel projects such as the Willow project on Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope has drawn criticism that it runs counter to President Joe Biden’s pledge to reduce carbon emissions and shift to clean energy. There have also been objections to the project’s environmental impact.

Environmentalists say Japan’s strategy of relying on fossil fuels such as coal, even with technologies such as carbon capture to keep emissions out of the atmosphere, has failed to more fully adopt renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, and has failed to establish a convincing An example for other major polluting countries such as China and India.

Granholm said the move toward adopting renewable, clean energy sources, including hydrogen, nonetheless “gives hope to others that the technology can bring down the cost to be able to do that.”

The Granholm cruise ship Suiso Frontier, which docked at Otaru Port on Friday, is the world’s only liquefied hydrogen sea carrier. Built by Japanese shipbuilder Kawasaki Heavy Industries, it carries liquid hydrogen cooled to minus 253 degrees Celsius (minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit) at one-eighth the volume of gas.

The 8,000-tonne ship is being built to transport hydrogen produced by coal gasification facilities in Australia to Japan, where it can be used, among other uses, to generate electricity and fuel cars.

The Biden administration is turning to hydrogen as an energy source for cars, manufacturing and power generation. It provides $8 billion to attract US industry, engineers and planners to research how to produce and deliver clean hydrogen.

“We’re interested in taking it to the next level to make sure it can come from a clean source,” Granholm said, standing on the bridge of the ship, whose home port is Kobe.

Earlier this month, US companies made final decisions in bidding for a new scheme to create a regional network, or “hub”, of hydrogen producers, consumers and infrastructure. The aim is to speed up the availability and use of the colorless, odorless gas that already powers some vehicles and trains.

The Department of Energy needs to fund at least four hydrogen centers by 2026. The centers will showcase various methods of producing hydrogen, including fossil fuels, nuclear and renewable energy.

The challenge is to ensure that such projects are commercially viable and that there is sufficient demand for hydrogen from industry.

The Department of Energy estimates that at least $85 billion is needed to build a US hydrogen industry.

Despite ambitions to turn the country into a “hydrogen society,” Japan’s own hydrogen industry is still in its infancy, and the government is still drafting the legislation needed to support the establishment of the infrastructure and supply chains for commercial use of hydrogen and ammonia.

Part of the plan involves providing an estimated 7 trillion yen ($53 billion) in subsidies to help bridge the price gap between hydrogen-produced energy and traditional energy sources such as natural gas.

Because hydrogen is difficult to transport, it is sometimes stored as liquid ammonia, which is one part nitrogen to three parts hydrogen. Ammonia could allow hydrogen to be stored and transported more easily and compactly.

Proponents of hydrogen and ammonia say they offer a way for Southeast Asian nations, the world’s fourth-largest emitters overall, to meet rising electricity demand while reducing carbon emissions.

The other is nuclear energy.

After a massive earthquake and catastrophic tsunami in March 2011 triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on the northeastern coast of its main island, Granholm praised Japan’s decision to restart many nuclear power plants that had been idled due to safety concerns.

In this energy-starved country, many see it as an inevitable choice, even as the plants’ life expectancy draws to a close.

Major Japanese industries such as steelmakers, manufacturers and electric utilities have made significant investments in fossil fuel-based technologies, and the government and politicians, Kumiko Hirata, founder and international director of Climate Integrate (Japan), told an online briefing. had a huge impact.

Japan’s “green transition” strategy, which includes commercializing the use of hydrogen and ammonia, caters mainly to the interests of big business, she said.

“They always argue that using existing technologies is the most economically viable way to decarbonize, and that’s why climate policymaking in Japan has been so slow,” she said. “And Japan is a laggard in the G7.” (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)