2012-4-13

Japan’s National Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Fiscal Year 2010(Final Figures)

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The Ministry of the Environment collated Japan’s National Greenhouse Gas Emissions (final figures) for fiscal year (FY) 2010 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 2010 in accordance with the above articles are shown in the attached document.

Japan’s total greenhouse gas emissions in FY 2010 (the final figures 1 ) were 1,258 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. They decreased by 0.3 % compared to those of the base year 2 under the Kyoto Protocol (FY 1990 for CO2, CH4, N2O and calendar year (CY) 1995 for HFCs, PFCs, SF6).

Compared to those of FY2009, emissions in FY2010 increased by 4.2% due to an increase in CO2 emissions from all sectors, especially Industries. The primary reason for the emissions increase in FY 2010 was the recovery from the economic recession following the Lehman Shock of 2008. The emissions from manufacturing increased due to a recovery in the level of activities. In addition, electric power demand increased due to the relatively high number of days on which extremes of hot or cold were experienced.

Meanwhile, removals by forest carbon sink measures and others under the Kyoto Protocol in FY 2010 were 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (consisting of 48.9 million tonnes by forest carbon sink measures and 1.1 million tonnes by urban revegetation). The removals corresponded to 4.0% of the total emissions in the base year (of which 3.9% is from removals by forest carbon sink measures).

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.


2 Concerning the relationships with the Kyoto Protocol target: The value “0.3% decrease” does not take into account either the promotion of forest carbon sink measures or the Kyoto mechanisms - therefore, this value, and Japan’s Kyoto Protocol target “-6%” can not be directly compared.

Attached File

April 13, 2012


Ministry of the Environment
Government of Japan

Greenhouse Gas Inventory Office of Japan
National Institute for Environmental Studies