Japan
Rating
Assessment
Japan's 25% conditional reduction by 2020 target is rated as Sufficient. The approval of a renewable energy bill in August 2011 is an important step for effective implementation. The new energy and environmental strategy includes reducing Japan’s dependence on nuclear power. Japan has announced its target as being conditional on an effective international framework where all major economies participate. It has not announced a target in the absence of such a framework; hence the assessment of Sufficiency here may optimistic. We estimate that LULUCF accounting leads to a small credit.
Description
Japan's Kyoto target (2008-2012) is -6% relative to base year (1990) emission levels Japan proposed to decrease emissions by -25% relative to 1990 emissions by 2020 and by -60 to -80% relative to 2005 by 2050. Although the proposed targets are conditional on an effective international framework in which all major economies participate, Japan has not proposed an alternative (unconditional) target to assess here.
Status
Official announcement
Date of pledge
September 2009
Source
Prime Minister Yukio Hatamoto (2009) Statement by H.E. Yukio Hatoyama Prime Minister of Japan at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change, 22 September 2009
Japan's view on the Annex of the conclusion of the AWG-KP7: Options and proposals on how to address definitions, modalities, rules and guidelines for the treatment of land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), 27 April 2009, FCCC/KP/AWG/2009/MISC.11
Japan (2011) Submission to the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP): Forest management reference levell
Japan's pledge to the Copenhagen Accord
Assumptions
Targets for 2020 were calculated from the most recent national inventory submissions (2012).
We calculated Japan's LULUCF accounting quantities in 2020 for afforestation, reforestation and deforestation using the current Kyoto rules. For forest management, Japan's proposed reference level is zero. We also apply a cap on forest management (either 3% of the base year emissions or 15% of the activity whichever is less), since they want to continue with the current Kyoto Protocol rules for forest management.
