The objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for the prevention of global warming is "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." However, clear findings have not yet been obtained concerning the level at which these concentrations should be stabilized. Clarifying the relationship between GHG concentrations and the dangerous level of impact has therefore become a pressing task. This is also true for Japan, with scientific studies on this issue having become an urgent and critical task in order to formulate medium- to long-term climate policies for implementation after the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.


The S-4 Project has been implemented targeting Japan and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, with the aim of quantitatively grasping the impacts of global warming by field and studying adaptation measures to mitigate these impacts. Moreover, through the development of a comprehensive assessment model for emission/impact projection in which these research results are integrated, studies are being carried out on the dangerous level of global warming and on GHG emission stabilization paths. By means of these efforts, it is possible to accumulate clear findings concerning climate change by field, thereby revealing the relationships between the integrated impacts on Japan and stabilization concentrations and suggesting the level of climate stabilization that needs to be achieved from the standpoint of climate change impacts.