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3 Japan goes on an air spending
spree By Hisane Masaki
TOKYO - Increasingly feeling the heat over
the Kyoto Protocol on curbing global warming,
Japan is going on a spending spree to buy rights
from around the world to emit carbon dioxide and
other heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
With
the clock ticking toward the start of the United
Nations treaty's "first commitment period" of
2008-2012, more and more dark clouds are hanging
over Japan's commitment to reach its
protocol goal.
Although Japan must reduce its annual
greenhouse gas (GHG)emissions by 6% during that
period on average from the 1990 levels, its
emissions in fiscal 2006, which ended on March 31
this year, were 6.4% above the fiscal 1990 levels,
according to preliminary government figures
released recently.
In a desperate bid to
reach its Kyoto goal, both the nation's government
and businesses are rushing to land emission
rights, or credits, through the "Kyoto
mechanisms."
Under the Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM), which is designed to help
industrialized countries meet their reduction
targets, firms from industrial countries can earn
emission credits in return for GHG-reduction
investments in developing countries and count them
as cuts in their own emissions - and in turn, in
their countries.
The two other Kyoto
mechanisms are Joint Implementation (JI) and
emissions trading. JI is similar to the CDM, but
it covers GHG-reduction projects in industrialized
countries that can afford to cut more gases than
required by the protocol, such as Russia and other
former Soviet republics and Eastern European
countries. The emissions trading system allows
countries to buy and sell credits between them.
The Japanese government has so far
approved about 250 CDM and JI projects that are
expected to reduce GHG emissions by a total of
over 100 million tonnes CO2 equivalent per annum.
Well over 90% of the government-approved projects
are CDM ones. Some of these GHG-reduction projects
have already been registered with the United
Nations.
In mid-November, Japan became the
first nation to link its national registry to the
international transaction log (ITL) being managed
by the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which signed the Kyoto
Protocol in 1997. The ITL allows emission credits
generated through CDM and JI projects to be
electronically transferred into national
registries, which administer the holdings and
transfers of credits.
Japan's link with
the ITL has made it possible for account holders
in the Japanese national registry to file
applications for emission credits transfers among
themselves. International emission credits
transfers are also expected to become possible in
early January next year, when Japan expects to
formally become eligible to participate in the
Kyoto mechanisms. Among other industrial
countries, New Zealand and Switzerland are also
expected to link their national registries with
the ITL by the end of this year. The European
Union (EU)'s link with the ITL is also expected
sometime next year.
Japan's businesses,
already among the world's largest credit buyers,
plan to further increase their purchases. The
nation's two major CO2 emitting industries,
electricity and steel, for example, have announced
recently they will significantly increase their
credit purchases, to a total of 164 million tonnes
CO2 equivalent. The Finance Ministry also said
recently that the government alone may have to
spend up to 1.2 trillion yen (US$10.9 billion) on
credits.
To be sure, Japan boasts of the
world's most energy-efficient economy and is proud
of the fact that the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated
and born in the nation's ancient capital just a
decade ago. But failure to fulfill its commitment
under the treaty would not only represent an
embarrassing loss of face for the nation but deal
a serious blow to its clout in the world of
environmental diplomacy.
The issue is
particularly sensitive for Japan because the
world's second-largest economy wants to take the
leadership role in efforts to establish an
effective international framework to replace the
Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. A key UN
conference is to be held for 12 days starting on
December 3 in the Indonesian resort island of
Bali, formally kicking off negotiations on the
post-Kyoto framework.
Japan will host an
annual summit of the Group of Eight (G8) major
countries in the Lake Toya hot-spring resort in
its northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido next July,
at which the post-Kyoto climate pact will be high
on the agenda. Tokyo plans to invite leaders from
other major CO2 emitters, such as China and India,
to the summit.
In hot water In
early November, the Environment Ministry said in a
preliminary report that Japan's GHG emissions
totaled 1.341 billion tonnes CO2 equivalent in
fiscal 2006, down 1.3% from fiscal 2005 but up
6.4% from fiscal 1990.
Under the Kyoto
Protocol, Japan must reduce its annual GHG
emissions by 6% to 1.185 billion tonnes CO2
equivalent on average during the Kyoto Protocol’s
"first commitment period" of 2008-2012 from 1.261
billion tonnes CO2 equivalent in 1990.
Under the current government plan, the
3.8% portion of the targeted 6% reduction is to be
achieved by carbon "sink" plantation projects at
home and the 1.6% portion - or about 20 million
tonnes CO2 equivalent - is to be achieved by the
government's purchases of emission credits. The
remaining 0.6% portion is to be achieved by GHG
reduction efforts by companies and households.
The preliminary report on fiscal 2006
emissions show that Japan must actually slash its
GHG emissions by 7% from the fiscal 2006 levels if
it is to reach its Kyoto goal.
Of the six
GHGs controlled by the Kyoto Protocol, CO2
accounted for 95% of Japan's total GHG emissions
in fiscal 2006. CO2 emissions amounted to 1.275
billion tonnes, down 1.3% from fiscal 2005 but up
11.4% from fiscal 1990. Emissions of all the other
controlled five GHGs, including methane and N2O,
in fiscal 2006 declined sharply from the fiscal
1990 levels.
CO2 emissions resulting from
energy generation, such as burning fossil fuels
for electricity and consuming gasoline for running
cars, totaled 1.184 billion tonnes, or 92.9% of
the nation's total CO2 emissions, in fiscal 2006.
CO2 emissions resulting from energy generation in
fiscal 2006 were down 1.4% from fiscal 2005 but up
11.8% from fiscal 1990.
Of the nation's
total CO2 emissions resulting from energy
generation in fiscal 2006, 455 million tonnes came
from the industrial sector, such as factories, up
0.6% from fiscal 2005 but down 5.6% from fiscal
1990. The transport sector produced 254 million
tonnes of CO2, down 0.9% from fiscal 2005 but up
17.0% from fiscal 1990. Office buildings and other
commercial facilities produced 233 million tonnes
of CO2, down 2.6% from fiscal 2005 but up 41.7%
from fiscal 1990. The household sector emitted 166
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