Security threats in Europe as well as in the Indo-Pacific are changing our world in fundamental ways. So is the climate crisis.

Heat waves and fires, floods and storms are destroying people’s homes and livelihoods. In some regions they directly fuel conflicts and destabilize governments.

Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement is a considerable setback for international efforts to tackle climate change.

Climate change is an urgent, common challenge, shared by all humanity. Now is the time for Germany and Japan to stay the course and to step up, while continuing to engage with all our partners.

Change is possible: The Russian invasion of Ukraine caused a massive disruption to Germany’s energy supply and sent energy prices soaring. With determination we managed to accelerate renewable energy deployment in order to replace Russian gas fully.

We realized: Our future economic security will depend on reliable, safe, cost efficient and environmentally friendly energy supplies.

Since my arrival in Japan last summer, the German energy transition has frequently been a topic of conversation.

How could Germany end nuclear power? How could it simultaneously accelerate the coal phaseout? Is it safe to rely on renewables?

The short answer would be: Renewable energy sources and electricity grids have become a matter of “overriding public interest” and “part of public security.”

In more detail: We made ambitious revisions to energy laws, designed strategies for the accelerated deployment of renewables and grids, while simplifying the approval process and reducing costs for industrial consumers.

The results speak for themselves: Last year, a record 59 percent of our electricity in Germany came from renewables. By far the largest share of our cross-border energy trade with European neighbors is renewable energy—not nuclear, not coal.

In the future, Germany's large-scale energy storage systems and climate-friendly back-up capacities will make us even more resilient.

Germany is supporting energy utilities as well as individual households to build large-scale storage facilities and storage units for self-generated electricity.

Currently, Germany has large-scale energy storage units with a total installed capacity of 2.2 GW (as of February 2025).

Not all options for Germany’s path to climate neutrality are available to Japan.

We are situated in the middle of Europe, with many neighbors we can rely on at short distance. Japan is an island nation with a unique landscape, where different avenues are needed to ensure energy security.

However, we truly envy Japan for its natural possibilities: abundant potential for geothermal energy and long coastlines for offshore wind.

AN INDISPENSABLE PARTNERSHIP FOR THE FUTURE OF ENERGY

Germany and Japan are industry champions. Given our industries and the energy needs of new technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing, we need reliable access to energy at affordable prices.

At the same time, we need to stay committed to achieving climate neutrality until 2050 at the latest—a goal which both the European Union and Japan share.

Countries like us must be at the forefront of developing, producing and investing in the technologies needed for decarbonization and green energy supply. Not only because we have the abilities and capacities, but also because those technologies will ensure our future economic strength.

Energy security, economic strength and climate neutrality must be seen as complementary goals, not as contradictory.

Germany today stands at almost half of the emissions of 1990—the baseline year Germany committed to in the Kyoto Protocol, one of the most influential international agreements of modern times.

The road ahead will be even more challenging, as the global temperature rise has already reached 1.5 degrees. But the future will also see technological breakthroughs.

The use of hydrogen might become a game changer in the global fight against climate change. Germany and Japan are in a pole position to develop and deploy the necessary technologies. 

And we already cooperate. The German H2Global foundation works with the Japanese industry as well as with the Tokyo metropolitan government to create and ramp up a global market for hydrogen.

There are big opportunities ahead—and we are determined to seize them together.

Germany and Japan have a strong relationship when it comes to the energy sector.

Japanese companies such as Hitachi, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Kyocera actively participate in Germany’s energy transition, supplying technologies, components and engineering services to build German grids, wind parks, photovoltaics and power plants.

German developers like RWE Renewables as well as manufacturers like Siemens Gamesa are participating in Japanese offshore wind projects. Together, we try to find ways to make offshore wind cheaper and more efficient.

Our cooperation also extends to our regions: Many German federal states cooperate with Japanese prefectures and frequently visit each other to promote renewable energy and green hydrogen.

Take the partnership of North Rhine-Westphalia and the city of Hamburg with Fukushima-ken for example, or the state of Schleswig-Holstein, which cooperates with Hyogo-ken. During my visit to these prefectures, I was very impressed by the deep friendship that has grown out of these relations.

The so-called German-Japanese Energy Partnership is the core platform where we discuss how the energy transition can be realized and how we can promote the development of new technologies together, including all levels of government, industry, science and society.

WA! DOITSU—GERMANY AT THE OSAKA EXPO 2025

We are excited about this year’s Osaka Expo 2025. Our pavilion will showcase Germany’s view of the future society—in harmony with each other, with nature and with climate.

It will be a manifest to our longstanding friendship with Japan and to our conviction that we will master the challenges—together.

We hope to welcome as many of you as possible in Osaka!

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Petra Sigmund is the German ambassador to Japan.