Japan’s newly-elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is a staunch defender of nuclear power who has vowed to put security at the heart of her government’s energy policy.

Today’s newsletter tells you all you need to know about where the Asian nation’s first female prime minister stands on climate and clean energy. 

Also, read the latest scientific research explaining why the carbon footprint of a beef burger is bigger in Houston than San Francisco. 

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A nuclear fan

By Aaron Clark and Laura Millan

Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected prime minister of Japan, may slow the nation’s development of solar farms while keeping nuclear power at the center of its energy strategy.

“Her point of view is that most of these solar panels, they come from China, they’re not Japanese-made," said Umer Sadiq, a Tokyo-based analyst with BloombergNEF. "So probably they are not good for Japan in an energy security sense.”

At the same time, Takaichi has shown support for perovskite solar, a technology that remains under domestic development. A number of Chinese manufacturers are pursuing the same technology. 

Takaichi has also proposed revitalizing farmland by improving crop rotation and increasing direct crop production. If successful, the strategy could boost investment in smart agriculture such as automation, and closed-type plant factories to stabilize production and reduce dependency on imports.

Still, Takaichi's bet on nuclear power might prove difficult as only 14 of the country's 33 commercially available reactors have resumed operation under stringent post-Fukushima rules. Restarts face high regulatory hurdles and have to win local government support. 

Only three more reactors are expected to come online by 2030, according to BloombergNEF. That would take Japan's nuclear capacity to 16.6 gigawatts, just under half the level required to meet the government's target of having 20% to 22% of the nation’s electricity come from nuclear by 2030.

There is already concern that Japan's renewable capacity isn’t growing fast enough to meet government targets and Takaichi’s rise to power may put those goals at even more risk. BloombergNEF forecasts solar and wind capacity will hit 140.6 gigawatts by 2030 — 33.3 gigawatts short of the government’s goal of 173.9 gigawatts. 

Ultimately, Takaichi’s policies may not do a great deal to change Japan’s energy and climate trajectories. Those are mapped out through the nation’s Green Transformation (GX) Basic Policy that aims to decarbonize the economy by mobilizing ¥150 trillion ($987 billion) in public-private investment over a decade.

“I don't see major changes on the ground” to Japan's energy and climate policies, said Mika Ohbayashi, director at the Renewable Energy Institute, a think tank that promotes clean-energy use.

Nuclear bet

Japan first

Take a listen

A worker inspects new solar panels. Photographer: Esteban Vanegas/Bloomberg

There’s always big ideas in the climate technology space, but it can be hard to get your head around all the different types of technologies making waves. What’s real and what’s low-carbon smoke and mirrors? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi teams up with venture capitalist and Catalyst podcast host Shayle Kann to talk about which climate technologies are working, and which are going nowhere.

Listen now, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero every Thursday.

By Emma Court

A customer holds a burger  Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg

Beef is notoriously bad for the environment. Just how bad depends a lot on where in the US you eat it.

The carbon footprint of a burger is bigger in Houston than San Francisco, and in Dallas compared with Chicago, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change.

The authors, who mapped livestock supply chains from feed to grocery store, found the biggest influence on beef’s greenhouse gas emissions was the type of cows the meat was sourced from. How far the meat traveled was only a minor source.

Of the 3,500 or so cities the researchers examined, Higginsville, Missouri, had the largest carbon footprint per pound of beef, and Auburn, Indiana, the lowest — to the point that a carnivore there would need to eat nearly five servings to generate the same level of emissions as one serving in Higginsville.

Read the full story on Bloomberg.com. 

Swedish green-steel startup Stegra AB appointed a restructuring expert to its board of directors as the company fights to stave off a funding crunch.

The company is seeking up to €975 million ($1.1 billion) in new financing to cover higher than expected project costs, fund infrastructure and fill a gap left by delays to state grant support.

Aidan de Brunner, who is currently working with troubled UK water company Thames Water, will join the board as part of a reshuffle that also saw financier Harald Mix step down as Stegra’s chairman.

The low-carbon steel startup is building its first plant in the very north of Sweden having raised about €6.5 billion over the past four years. It was supposed to be a champion of the country’s green industrial ambitions, but echoes of the tale of the now-bankrupt Northvolt AB are starting to show. The companies share a funding model as well as a key investor — Mix. Still, Stegra has continued to insist it has little in common with the defunct battery maker.

The construction site of Stegra’s green steel plant in June. Photographer: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP

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