Japan’s National Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Fiscal Year 2008(The Final Figures)

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Japan’s National Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Fiscal Year 2008
(The Final Figures)

The Ministry of the Environment has compiled Japan’s national greenhouse gas emissions (the final figures) in fiscal year (FY) 2008 in accordance with the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures.

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are required to prepare national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and submit them to the UNFCCC secretariat under Article 4 of the UNFCCC and Article 7 of the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC. Moreover, Article 7 of the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures, which provides for domestic measures for the UNFCCC, requires the government of Japan to annually estimate and publish Japan’s GHG emissions and removals. In accordance with these articles, the Ministry of the Environment of Japan has estimated the GHG emissions and removals in FY 2008 and the results are shown in the attached document.Note.1

Japan’s total greenhouse gas emissions in FY 2008 were 1,282 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. This was an increase of 1.6 %Note. 2 compared to the base years under the Kyoto Protocol (FY 1990 for CO2, CH4, N2O and calendar year (CY) 1995 for HFCs, PFCs, SF6). There was a decrease of 6.4% compared to FY 2007 as a result of decreases in energy-origin CO2 emissions from all the sectors, including the Industries sector. The primary reason for the decrease in emissions in FY 2008 compared to FY 2007 was the drop in energy demand within all the sectors, including the Industries sector, due to the severe economic recession induced by the financial crisis in the second half of FY 2008. If the rate of operation of nuclear power plants in FY 2008 was at the same level as before their long-term shutdown (i.e., at the level of FY 1998), the total emissions in FY 2008 would be 3.4% lower than those of the base years.

Meanwhile, removals by forest carbon sink measures and others under the Kyoto Protocol in FY 2008 were 44 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (consisting of 43.3 million tons by forest carbon sink measures and 0.7 million tons by urban revegetation). The removals corresponded to 3.5% of the total emissions in the base years (of this, the removals by forest carbon sink measures corresponded to 3.4%).

Note 1: In this document, “final figures” means the figures officially submitted to the UNFCCC secretariat as Japan’s GHG emissions and removals in a GHG inventory. The final figures compiled at this time will be revised when annual values in statistical data are updated, and/or estimation methods are revised.

Note 2: In terms of the relationship to the Kyoto target, the value “1.6% increase” does not take into account credits from either the promotion of forest carbon sink measures or the Kyoto mechanism; therefore, this value and Japan’s Kyoto target “-6%” cannot be directly compared.

Attached File:
·Japan’s National Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Fiscal Year 2008 (The Final Figures)
<Executive Summary >
[PDF:39KB]

April 15, 2010

Ministry of the Environment
Government of Japan

Greenhouse Gas Inventory Office of Japan
National Institute for Environmental Studies
Website: http://www-gio.nies.go.jp/index.html