Japan's National Greenhouse Gas Emissions in FY 2008 (The Preliminary Figures)

The MOE summarized Japan's National Greenhouse Gas Emissions (The Preliminary Figures) in FY 2008 as follows.

Japan's total greenhouse gas emissions in FY 2008 (The Preliminary Figures) were 1,286 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents.
It increased by 1.9% compared to those of the base year under the Kyoto Protocol (FY 1990 for CO2, CH4, N2O and CY 1995 for HFCs, PFCs, SF6).
On the other hand, it decreased by 6.2% compared to those of FY 2007 as a result of decreased energy-origin CO2 emissions from all sectors including the Industries sector.

The primary reason for the emission reduction in FY 2008 as compared to FY 2007 was the drop in energy demand within all sectors including the Industries sector as the result of the severe economic recession induced by the financial crisis in the second half of FY 2008.
If the equipment utilization rate for nuclear power plants in FY 2008 was at the same level as prior to their long-term shutdown (i.e., at the level of FY 1998), the total emissions in FY 2008 would be 3.1% lower than those of the base year.

(1) Concerning the estimation of the preliminary figures:
The estimation of the final figures of greenhouse gas emissions is based on annual data from a variety of statistics. However, some of these data were not yet available while the preliminary figures were being estimated. For those data whose FY 2008 values were not available, the FY 2007 values were used. Therefore, there may be some errors in the preliminary figures reported here compared to the final figures to be reported in April 2010.

(2) Concerning the relationships with the Kyoto target:
The value of "1.9% increase" does not take into account either the promotion of forest carbon sink measures or the Kyoto mechanism. Therefore, this value and Japan's Kyoto target of "-6%" can not be directly compared.

Attached File:
Japan's National Greenhouse Gas Emissions in FY 2008 (The Preliminary Figures) <Executive Summary >

November 11, 2009

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

For Japanese

Attached File:

• Japan's National Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Fiscal Year 2008(The Preliminary Figures) [PDF 245 KB]