Press Release

GJETC presents new studies: Digitalization,decarbonization options for the industry and impactof the Corona pandemic on climate policy
Berlin/Tokyo, April 30, 2021. Today, the German Japanese Energy Transition Council (GJETC)
publishes three studies prepared during the last year. The Council, consisting of renowned
scientists from Germany and Japan, is committed to science-based cooperation on issues related toglobal climate heating and energy transition. The studies deal with key questions for the energy
transition in both countries: How can Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data be utilized to optimizepower grid operation? To what extend can Carbon Capture and Usage (CCU) and Hydrogen
contribute to the decarbonization of energy-intensive industries? And which impact of COVID-19
can be observed on energy consumption, social behaviour and climate policy? From the individualstudies, the GJETC has also derived recommendations for policymakers in Germany and Japan. The
studies can be downloaded from the GJETC homepage.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy transition is making progress worldwide, and with thereturn of the USA to the Paris climate agreement, achieving more ambitious global climate targets
seems more realistic again. In this process, countries can benefit from cooperation on climate
policies, create climate-friendly development models, and advance a balanced transition of theirenergy systems while ensuring a secure energy supply. This is also indicated by the latest results ofstudies conducted by the GJETC.
Prof. Masakazu Toyoda, the Japanese Co-Chair of the GJETC, puts the findings into context: “Theresults show that Japan and Germany have the opportunity to significantly reduce their greenhousegas emissions and aim at carbon neutrality by 2050 with the help of various country-specificapproaches. Our studies find that the consistent use of new technologies, innovative methods to use
and store carbon dioxide, and active and future-oriented climate policies after the COVID-19
pandemic play an important role in achieving these goals.”
The German Co-Chair, Prof. Dr. Peter Hennicke, adds: “The COVID-19 pandemic has provided us withan example of how we can achieve unprecedented impacts through decisive and rapid policy actions.
Policymakers around the world should use the global stimulus programs as an ‘once-in-a-lifetime’opportunity to initiate and foster a more ambitious economic structural change in the direction ofsustainability. As GJETC, we accompany this change scientifically and provide guidance andorientation through our studies.”
All studies can be found at: https://www.gjetc.org/publications

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Study 1: Digitalization and the Energy Transition – Use of digitalization to optimize grid operation
utilizing AI and Big Data collected from DERs
This study deals with the use of smart grid technology and other digital technologies to harness
Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) in order to enable integration of a higher share of Variable
Renewable Energy Sources (VRE) in the distribution grid. Use cases, technical solutions particularly
based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), business models, and experiences
in both countries are discussed, but also needs for regulation that will enable their roll-out.

Study 2: Carbon Capture Use and Storage (CCUS) and Hydrogen Contributing to Decarbonization ofEnergy-intensive Industries
This study explores policy directions and possible technologies to decarbonize the industry sector in
Germany and Japan because it would be difficult for both countries to achieve the carbon neutrality
by 2050 without the sector’s efforts of reducing CO2. In particular, hydrogen direct use, blendinghydrogen with natural gas, and CCUS were the subjects studied. Hydrogen direct use and CCU were
found most promising for both countries and their potential cooperation on R&D, policy frameworks,
and international sustainability and safety standards for hydrogen.

Study 3: Energy and Climate Policy in the Post COVID-19 era – Comparative Analyses on Germany andJapan
This short and preliminary study focuses on Germany and Japan and tries to identify possible impactsof COVID-19 on the economy and related energy consumption/CO2-emissions and on possible
induced long-term structural and behaviour changes. It analyses the recovery programs and their
possible impacts on sustainable structural change and on the style of policy making. Finally, itsuggests setting up a more comprehensive German-Japanese research project that compares thelong run effects of the COVID-19 crisis for both countries.

2About the GJETC
The German-Japanese Energy Transition Cooperation Council is an international model to strengthen
knowledge exchange on technologies, policies and the impacts of the energy transition. In its form,
continuity and size, the GJETC is the first German-Japanese cooperation project on the energy
transition of its kind. Founded in spring 2016, the Council conducts an extensive study program on core
topics of the energy transition, holds stakeholder dialogues with industry and civil society, and has
published eleven studies, a series of strategic input papers, and two reports with key
recommendations for a successful energy transition in March 2018 and June 2020.
The project, jointly launched by the Wuppertal Institute, ECOS, hennicke.consult and the Institute ofEnergy Economics Japan (IEEJ/Tokyo) was funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation(DBU), the Mercator Foundation and the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) inworking phase 1 and 2. In the 3rd phase of the council’s work, the German Federal Ministry for theEnvironment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) takes over funding for the GJETC fromthe DBU.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), and the Japanese-German Center Berlin(JDZB) also support the project. On the German side, the Wuppertal Institute is coordinating theCouncil's work as secretariat together with ECOS; on the Japanese side, the Institute of Energy
Economics Japan (IEEJ) had been doing this task.

Press contact Germany:
Kevin Hohmann
Medienbüro am Reichstag GmbH
Reinhardtstrasse 55
10117 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 2061 4130 50
E-Mail: kevin.hohmann@mar-berlin.de

Press contact Japan:
General Planning GroupThe Institute of Energy Economics, Japan
Inui Bldg.Kachidoki 10th Floor, 13-1, Kachidoki 1chome, Chuo-ku,
Tokyo 104-0054
Phone: +81-3-5547-0211
Fax: +81-3-5547-0223
E-Mail: contact-ieej@tky.ieej.or.jp

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