In February, the Cabinet approved three sweeping energy and climate initiatives: the 7th Basic Energy Plan, the Plan for Global Warming Countermeasures, and the GX 2040 Vision. Since then, major power utilities and gas companies have outlined their yearly, short-term, or medium-term business management plans, offering the first insights into how Japan’s energy industry is responding to the new goals.

While nearly every company reaffirmed a commitment to a low-carbon future, the degree of scale, scope, and choice of technologies varies significantly. Beyond a few standouts, most plan to keep thermal power as a critical part of the generation mix.

By far the biggest trend among the nation’s biggest energy firms was a re-commitment to embrace LNG as a replacement for coal, as well as support for co-firing ammonia and hydrogen fuels and the long-term implementation of CCS technologies as the pathways to reduce thermal power’s carbon footprint.

Still, the utilities’ decarbonization plans differed in the extent to which thermal power would remain and the “complementary” thermal-related decarbonization measures. The stance on expanding renewables was also far from unanimous.