The EU and Japan have presently agreed to bolster their energy collaboration by instituting an EU-Japan energy security conversation on international liquefied natural gas (LNG) framework. This specific discussion will center on three main aspects: international assurance of supply, market transparency, and decreasing methane emissions within the LNG supply chain, thereby fortifying the EU’s strategic energy alliance with Japan. This meeting happened today at the 2023 LNG Producer Consumer Conference ongoing in Tokyo.
The agreement to form this conversation ensued after the EU-Japan Summit on 13 July 2023 in Brussels. As two of the most significant importers of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the leaders consented to enhance collaboration to cultivate secure and clear global LNG markets, while concurrently diminishing methane emissions in line with the Global Methane Pledge.
In regards to international LNG supply security, the dialogue will ease collaboration on a worldwide early warning system. The EU and Japan will leverage their longstanding expertise in creating resilient energy security policies founded on inter-region and inter-country cooperation to anticipate and eventually address energy crises. The EU is set to unveil its bolstered security architecture, which was strengthened amid the 2022 supply crunch, and is rooted in an all-encompassing EU gas storage strategy, and the gas demand consolidation instrument, AggregateEU. Apart from two-way collaborations, both Japan and the EU are poised to actively participate with the International Energy Agency (IEA) and contribute meaningfully to discussions about the IEA’s role in the gas industry.
The participants view the transparency of energy markets as the cornerstone of supply security and hence consider that it should be incorporated in the upcoming global LNG structure. Towards this objective, it’s essential to amplify the exchange of pivotal data concerning energy security across the consumer and producer regions. The EU now leads the world in providing thorough information on its power and gas infrastructures. With the help of European Transparency Platforms and the ACER LNG benchmark since 2022, the EU has improved transparency with regard to LNG terminals, pricing indices, and gas storage.
In terms of environmental considerations, the European Union and Japan will continue to work together to limit methane discharge, in harmony with the Global Methane Commitment and the Collective Agreement from Energy Importing and Exporting Countries to Decrease Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Fossil Fuels. Within this framework, they will cooperate on monitoring, reporting, and verifying methane emissions and advocate for reduction measures, also contributing to the improvement of global energy security.
The EU-Japan specialized dialogue initiative is a progression towards a more secure and sustainable energy future. By joining forces, the EU and Japan are showing their dedication to discovering universal solutions to global problems. The initiative invites cooperation from other partners who align with this vision of a secure and sustainable energy future.
The 2022 energy crisis underscored the necessity for a universal solution to guarantee the attainment of energy security and decarbonization goals based on shared values and a commitment to multilateralism. Reacting to concerns about natural gas shortages in the EU and calls for diverting LNG to Europe, Japan demonstrated solidarity as long as its own supply stability was guaranteed. The EU and Japan persist in supporting initiatives to ensure global energy security and will probe possibilities for closer collaboration on supply security and flexibility solutions that aim to deliver the fitting support as per the G7 Communiqué.