Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions for
the year ended March 31 rose 3.9 percent from the prior year on
the increased use of fossil fuels in power plants after the
Fukushima nuclear disaster shut all but two atomic reactors.
Excluding so-called carbon credits that can be used to
offset greenhouse gas output, emissions increased to 1.307
billion metric tons in the 12 months or 3.6 percent higher than
1990 levels, according to Ministry of the Environment figures
released today.
Under the Kyoto Protocol targets set in 1997, Japan
committed to cut greenhouse gases by 6 percent from 1990 in the
term from 2008 to 2012 when the first Protocol target period
expires. Japan’s announcement today came as talks among envoys
from more than 190 nations in Doha, Qatar, to negotiate cuts in
greenhouse gas emissions seemed headed for a stalemate.
The ministry said that taking into account the absorption
of carbon dioxide by forests and credits earned for offsets
outside the country, Japan cut emissions in 2008 through 2011 by
an average 9.2 percent.
“It is not impossible to achieve the goal” of a 6 percent
cut, Kentaro Doi, a ministry official in charge of climate
change, said at a press briefing in Tokyo.
Nuclear power plants, which emit virtually no greenhouse
gases, provided about 30 percent of Japan’s electricity before
the March 2011 meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant. The
government shut down all 50 of the nation’s reactors for safety
checks with 48 still offline due to mass public demonstrations
against restarts.
As a result, Japan nine atomic utilities were forced to
turn to gas-, oil- and coal-fired power plants to keep the
world’s third-largest economy running. The utilities face a bill
of about 6.8 trillion yen ($82.7 billion) for fuel this fiscal
year, almost double that in the 12 months before the disaster.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo at
cwatanabe5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
