Japan to phase out combustion-engine vehicles by mid-2030s to achieve carbon neutrality

Japan is planning to ban the sale of the combustion-engine automobile by the mid-2030s and switch totally to hybrid or electric cars. According to the sources of Japanese broadcaster NHK, Japan is aiming to prohibit the operation of fossil-fuel vehicles completely within the span of 15 years to reduce the carbon footprint by 2050. Prime Minister of Japan Yoshihide Suga marked the deadline to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in the month of October, Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun confirmed. 

The UN and the global climate activism agencies hailed Japan’s decision and urged the other nations to align with the environmental cause and impose similar restrictions on the use of vehicles that burn fossil-fuel. As per reports, Japan aims to boost the sale of hybrid and electric cars by an estimated 50 to 70 percent by the year 2030, pushing the record from the previous 40 percent.

In an attempt to initiate the decarbonization in the automobile sector, the Japanese government announced that it will, in the near future, lay the details about how it plans to achieve its vision of shrinking the nation’s greenhouse gas emission to nearly 0. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry have also informed that it will hold a high-level meeting with the industry experts, automakers, and key players to discuss guidelines to discontinue the gasoline vehicles and the policies to attain that transition. 

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Alternate options for utilities

Japan is now looking forward to some of the leading automobile manufacturers such as the Toyota Motor Corp. that has popularised line of hybrid cars. Japan Times quoted the power and renewables analyst at Fitch Solutions, Daine Loh as saying that the nationwide decision to halt the fossil fuel combustion cars will prompt the firms to explore alternate options for utilities.

However, the move is unlikely to see electricity consumption rise in the mid-2030s given low real GDP growth rates and Japan’s aging population, Loh analyzed. Japan’s PM aims to make the country the second G7 nation to minimize the carbon emissions to nil. Chief government spokesman Katsunobu Kato said at a news conference that the administration will draft a plan by the year-end.

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