TOKYO- Japanese trading company Marubeni Corp said on Tuesday it aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 and it moves forward its 2030 goal of halving its net coal power generating capacity from 2018 level to 2025.
The move comes as Japanese trading houses speed up their efforts to shift away from coal and other fossil fuel assets amid a growing decarbonisation push worldwide and to match an ambitious pledge by government of becoming a carbon neutral by 2050.
In 2018, Marubeni promised to slash its net coal power generating capacity to 1.5 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 from about 3 GW at the time to help combat climate change.
But the company now aims to achieve the 1.5 GW target by 2025 and further reduce capacity to 1.3 GW by 2030, it said in a statement. The current capacity is about 2.6 GW.
Marubeni has said it would not develop any new coal-fired power project. But it plans to continue to invest in new gas power projects to meet demand from low-carbon society, it added.
Marubeni's 2050 net zero emission goal will be achieved without using carbon credits and carbon trading, a company spokesman said.
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi, editing by Louise Heavens) ((Yuka.Obayashi@thomsonreuters.com; +813-4563-2761;))
