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2017-4-13

Japan’s National Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Fiscal Year* 2015 (Final Figures)

The Ministry of the Environment and the National Institute for Environmental Studies have released Japan’s National Greenhouse Gas Emissions (final figures1) for fiscal year (FY) 2015.
Total emissions2 in FY2015 (final figures) were 1,325 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (Mt CO2 eq.), a 2.9% decrease compared to FY2014; a 6.0% decrease compared to FY2013; a 5.3% decrease compared to FY2005.
The main factor in the drop in emissions as compared to FY2014 is the decreased energy-related CO2 emissions due to the progress of energy conservation, effects of cool summer and mild winter, the greater adoption of renewable energy and resuming nuclear power operations.
* Japan’s fiscal year is from April 1 to March 31.
 

Under Article 4 and 12 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (hereinafter, Convention) and relevant decisions adopted by the Conference of the Parties, the Annex I parties including Japan (i.e. developed countries) are required to prepare national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and submit them to the Secretariat of the Convention. Moreover, Article 7 of the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures, which provides for domestic measures under the Convention, requires the Government of Japan to annually estimate and make public Japan’s GHG emissions and removals.

In accordance with these Articles, Japan’s GHG inventories in FY2015 were estimated.

Japan’s total GHG emissions in FY2015 were 1,325 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents (Mt CO2 eq.; the same shall apply hereafter).

This is a decrease of 2.9% (39 Mt CO2 eq.) and 6.0% (84 Mt CO2 eq.), when compared to the FY2014 and FY2013 emissions (1,364 Mt CO2 eq. and 1,409 Mt CO2 eq.), respectively, mainly because of the decreased energy-related CO2 emissions owing to lowered CO2 emissions from power generation, as a result of decreased electricity consumption (due to energy conservation, cool summer and mild winter, etc.) and the improvement of carbon intensity in power generation (due to greater adoption of renewable energy, resuming nuclear power operation, etc.).

This is also a decrease of 5.3% (74 Mt CO2 eq.) when compared to the FY2005 emissions (1,399 Mt CO2 eq.), mainly due to the decreased energy-related CO2 emissions in the industrial and transport sectors, despite the increase in hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) emissions from refrigerants following their substitution in place of ozone-depleting substances.

Removals by forest and other carbon sinks3 under the Kyoto Protocol in FY 2015 were 58.8 Mt CO2 eq., consisting of 50.1 Mt CO2 eq. by forest carbon sinks and 8.6 Mt CO2 eq. by cropland management, grazing land management, and urban revegetation.

Footnote:

1 “Final figures” means the figures officially submitted to the Secretariat of the Convention as Japan’s GHG emissions and removals in a national GHG inventory. The final figures compiled this time will be recalculated when annual values in statistical data are updated, and/or estimation methods are revised.

2 There are some differences between the final figures compiled this time and preliminary figures released on December 6th, 2016, because some estimation methods were revised for a more accurate estimation, and some recalculation was conducted based on annual values in statistics and other data which were made available after the estimation of preliminary figures. The preliminary figures indicated that GHG emissions in FY2015 decreased by 3.0% compared to FY2014 (6.0% decrease and 5.2% decrease when compared to FY2013 and FY2005, respectively).

3 The removals by forest and other carbon sinks reported this time were estimated by calculating emissions/removals from activities under the Kyoto Protocol, in accordance with the decision of the 8th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Kyoto Protocol.

Attached File

April 13th, 2017

Ministry of the Environment
Government of Japan

Greenhouse Gas Inventory Office of Japan
National Institute for Environmental Studies

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