In September 2020, the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation announced its project of organising a one-year cycle of events on Decarbonisation, with the financial support of the European Union’s Partnership Instrument. One month later, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga set the new ambition of Japan: reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. Now aligned with the European ambition, Japan is accelerating its efforts for a transition towards a low-carbon society.
Thanks to this new pledge, interest has grown in Japan for policies and technologies contributing to Decarbonisation – a sector in which European member-states and their companies have established a global leadership.
Two promising clean energy sectors, both representing a key component of Decarbonisation efforts towards 2030 and 2050 in Europe and Japan, have been the focus of events organised recently by the EU-Japan Centre.
The first one, offshore wind, gathered on 26-28 April more than 25 representatives of leading companies from both sides, including major businesses, such as Orsted (Denmark) or Sumitomo Corporation (Japan), and smaller innovative companies, like BW Ideol (France) and 2-B Energy (The Netherlands). This event highlighted existing partnerships, helped companies from both sides to better know each other, and included a focus on two key topics: certification and conformity assessment of offshore wind technologies, and cost reduction of floating offshore wind.
The second one, on 27 May, explored the topic of green hydrogen production. Existing projects from the Netherlands, Spain and Japan were introduced, and speakers could discuss the potential for further EU-Japan cooperation in producing a zero-carbon renewable hydrogen.
Both events gathered several hundreds of participants, confirming the increased interest, in 2021, for Decarbonisation in Europe and Japan – and how EU-Japan partnerships can be furthered developed in relevant sectors.
These successful events will be followed by other ones in the coming weeks. To know more about past and future events in this program, please visit our website or contact us.