2011-4-26

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Japan’s National Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Fiscal Year 2009(Final Figures)

The Ministry of the Environment has assembled Japan’s national greenhouse gas emissions (final figures) for fiscal year (FY) 2009 in accordance with the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures.

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are required to prepare national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and submit them to the UNFCCC secretariat under Article 4 of the UNFCCC and Article 7 of the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC. Moreover, Article 7 of the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures, which provides for domestic measures for the UNFCCC, requires the government of Japan to annually estimate and make public Japan’s GHG emissions and removals.

The results of the estimations of GHG emissions and removals for FY 2009 in accordance with the above articles are shown in the attached document.Note.1

Japan’s total greenhouse gas emissions in FY 2009 were 1,209 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. This was a decrease of 4.1%Note. 2 compared to the base year under the Kyoto Protocol (FY 1990 for CO2, CH4, N2O and calendar year (CY) 1995 for HFCs, PFCs, SF6). There was a decrease of 5.6% compared to FY 2008 as a result of decreases in CO2 emissions from all the specified sectors, including the Industries sector. The reasons for the decrease in emissions in FY 2009 compared to FY 2008 were the continuous decrease in energy demand within all sectors including the Industries sector as the result of the severe economic recession induced by the financial crisis that occurred in the second half of FY 2008, and the improvement in CO2 emissions intensity of electric power generation due to increases in the capacity factor of nuclear power plants etc.

Meanwhile, removals by forest carbon sink measures and others under the Kyoto Protocol in FY 2009 were 47 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (consisting of 46.3 million tonnes by forest carbon sink measures and 0.7 million tonnes by urban revegetation). The removals corresponded to 3.7% of the total emissions in the base year.


Note 1:
In this document, “final figures” means the figures officially submitted to the UNFCCC secretariat as Japan’s GHG emissions and removals in a GHG inventory. The final figures compiled at this time will be revised when annual values in statistical data are updated, and/or estimation methods are revised.

Note 2:
In terms of the relationship to the Kyoto target, the value “4.1% decrease” does not take into account credits from either the promotion of forest carbon sink measures or the Kyoto mechanism; therefore, this value and Japan’s Kyoto target of “-6%” cannot be directly compared.



April 26, 2011

Ministry of the Environment
Government of Japan

Greenhouse Gas Inventory Office of Japan
Center for Global Environmental Research
National Institute for Environmental Studies