Tokyo | Japan’s huge trading houses are belatedly gearing up for the transition to green energy, a juggernaut that will create huge opportunities for Australia, a former top climate adviser to Canberra says.

Patrick Suckling, who now heads the Asian operations of climate advisory and investment firm Pollination, has just spent a week in Japan assessing the corporate appetite in the world’s third-largest economy to take part in the move to zero carbon emissions.