Japan's greenhouse gases emissions drop 4% to a record low in FY23/24

Government data released on Friday showed that Japan's greenhouse gases emissions dropped by 4%, reaching a new record low for the fiscal year ending March 2024. This was due to lower energy consumption, increased use of renewable energies, and restarting nuclear power plants.

The data of the Environment Ministry showed that emissions for 2023/24 dropped from 1.116 billion to 1.071 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

This is the second consecutive year that the figure has declined.

The industrial sector experienced a decline of 4%, while the commercial sector and service sector suffered a drop of 6.2%. The household sector's emissions also decreased by 6.8%. Transportation sector emissions dropped by 0.7%.

Japan, which is the fifth largest CO2 emitter in the world, wants to reduce its emissions by 46 percent from 2013 levels by 2030. The 2023/24 number represents a decrease of 23,3% from 2013.

According to the Ministry, in 2023/24, greenhouse gas emissions from forests and other sources fell by 0.2%. They reached 53.7 million tonnes.

Japan's emissions increased after the Fukushima disaster in 2011, which resulted in widespread reactor shutdowns. Fossil fuels were also used more. The peak of emissions was 1.4 billion tons during 2013/14, but since then they have declined due to the increased use of renewable energies and the gradual restarting of nuclear reactors.

Renewable energy will account for 22,9% of the electricity generated in 2023/24. This is an increase of 1.1 percentage points over the previous year. Nuclear energy contributed 8,5%, an increase of 2.9 percentage points.

Thermal power accounted for 68.6%, a decrease of 4 percentage points compared to the previous year. Thermal sources were 28.3% coal and 32.9% gas. 7.4% was oil. (Reporting and editing by Yuka Obayashi, Katya Glubkova)

(source: Reuters)