Japan’s Record Emissions
November 12th, 2008Posted by: Roger Pielke, Jr.
Japan’s emissions hit a record high:
Japan’s carbon dioxide emissions hit a record high of 1.37 billion tons in the year to March 2008, well above the target set by the Kyoto Protocol, the environment ministry said Wednesday.
The figure, which marked a 2.3 percent rise from the previous fiscal year, was mainly the result of more polluting energy production following the closure of the world’s biggest nuclear power plant after it was damaged in an earthquake that struck northern Japan.
“The greater use of thermal power plants due to reduced nuclear power operations significantly contributed to the increase,” an environment ministry official said.
The data shows that Japan’s CO2 emission rose 8.7 percent from the 1990 level.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, Japan is committed to reducing its emissions by six percent from the benchmark year in the period between 2008 and 2012. Japan relies on nuclear plants for nearly one-third of its power needs.
Rather than reduce emissions by 6 percent, Japan has seen their grow by about 9 percent. With outcomes like this, why wouldn’t the U.S. sign on to Kyoto plus?
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November 13th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Without the U.S. signing on to Kyoto, why wouldn’t we expect outcomes like this?
November 14th, 2008 at 4:35 am
TokyoTom
What so you mean? Do you mean that the economic policies of one country, Japan in this case, are in fact set by another country, the U. S.?
And to extrapolate, are you saying that world-wide emissions would have been reduced if the U. S. had signed?
So now a singe country is responsible for all the increases in emissions over the entire planet.
You aren’t serious, are you?
November 14th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Tom- I’d suggest another look!
November 14th, 2008 at 6:55 am
EDaniel, do you understand that the atmosphere is a commons? Is it rational for any of the other developed nations to spend heavily on reducing GHG emissions if others are not going to share the burden?
Perhaps that will give you a clue as to my point, and why this matter is so difficult.
November 14th, 2008 at 7:26 am
ToykoTom asks:
“Is it rational for any of the other developed nations to spend heavily on reducing GHG emissions if others are not going to share the burden?”
My answer is yes. And I’ll ask you, Why not?
Different entities can have different outlooks on the state of the commons and what their response to that state should be.
Plus, I think maybe Professor Pielke is referring to recent reductions in U. S. emissions. And the EU, a large developed industrial entity that has signed on, is not fairing too good.
Kindly omit the condescending tone in future comments to me. Instead address the issues.
November 14th, 2008 at 7:43 am
Tom is making a theoretical point, which is sound enough, but not sufficient to explain what is going on in Japan.
From his handle I assume that he might have some local knowledge, like, for instance, how an earthquake took offline the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, the world’s largest, requiring replacement by other far more carbon-intensive sources of electricity. There is a lesson there as well.