Japan greenhouse emissions fell 6.2% last year

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By Risa Maeda

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese greenhouse gas emissions fell 6.2 percent in the last financial year, the government said on Wednesday, confirming market views that the worst recession in decades would have largely contributed to emission cuts.

Greenhouse gas emissions in the first year of Japan's Kyoto Protocol obligations totaled 1.286 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent, compared with a revised 1.371 billion tonnes in 2007/2008, a record high.

The 2008/09 figure is approaching the Kyoto goal for the world's fifth biggest emitter of 1.186 billion tonnes a year. The government and companies have bought hundreds of millions of tonnes of emissions offsets, helping the country meet its 2008-12 Kyoto target.

"The figure suggests we're currently at levels sufficiently (low) enough to achieve the target," said Yasuo Takahashi, who heads the environment ministry's climate change policy division.

"But we're not saying that we no longer need to carry out the emission-cut plans," he said at a news conference after the data was released. "2008/2009 was an unusual year."

A steep fall in greenhouse gas emissions in the last financial year to March 2009 was due mainly to a slump in economic activity. This caused energy consumption by the industrial sector to fall 11 percent.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from burning fossil fuels, such as coal, which accounted for 88 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, fell 6.7 percent to 1.14 billion tonnes in 2008/2009.

It was the steepest fall on record as the world's No.2 economy shrank 3.2 percent.

WARM WINTER

A warm winter helped reduce emissions from houses and offices and the transport sector benefited from higher motor vehicle fuel efficiency and falling land transport cargoes.

Japan is committed under the Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 1.186 billion tonnes a year over the five years to March 2013, down 6 percent from 1.261 billion tonnes in 1990/1991, Japan's Kyoto base year.

The goals include 20 million tonnes a year of emissions rights that Tokyo plans to buy from abroad and spending at home on forest conservation to absorb an estimated 48 million tonnes of CO2 a year.

Assuming these offsets are in place as planned, the country is allowed to emit as much as 1.25 billion tonnes.

Moreover, power companies last financial year redeemed 64 million tonnes of emissions rights in total, giving Japan room to emit more than 1.25 billion tonnes.

In 2008/2009, the recession limited new private spending on energy efficiency. But the power sector, which has voluntary emissions reduction targets, has been aggressively buying emissions rights from abroad. Their buying reached a total of 250 million tonnes by March.

The power sector, accounting for 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, is under pressure to quickly deal with power supply interruptions from nuclear plants.

Unlike the European Union, where companies are subject to compulsory emission caps, Japan's emission plans largely depend on voluntary cuts by power, steel and other major industries. (Editing by David Fogarty)

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