Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures
Enactment of the Act in 1998: In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted at the 3rd Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In October of the following year of 1998, the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures was enacted to deal with the Kyoto Protocol in Japan. The legislation was the first step by the Japanese government to initiate the CO2 emission reduction scheme targeting all sectors in the nation, including the central government, local governments and authorities, businesses, and every person in the nation. The scheme became effective as a result of the Cabinet Decision in the following April of 1999. This Act went through several revisions and the timeline of the revisions and related key activities is as follows:
Revision in 2002: In May 2002, Japan ratified the Kyoto Protocol and the Diet passed the “Revised Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures” to introduce the new CO2 emission reduction programs targeted for all sectors to achieve the 6% CO2 emissions reduction commitment under the Protocol. In the program, the industrial sector was required to achieve a 7% cut of CO2 emissions, while a 2% reduction was required for the residential and commercial sector. It also required the transport sector to bring the CO2 emission growth at 17% above the 1990 level. This lead to the reduction of CO2 emission from energy use in the form of fuel combustion which was expected to stay at the 1990 level. Other measures were introduced as follows: Establishment of the Council of Ministers for Global Environmental Conservation, Development of the Kyoto Achievement Plan; and Stipulation of the establishment and implementation of countermeasures by local governments.
Revision in 2005: In 2005, the Kyoto Protocol took effect and in the same year, the Act was revised with the new initiatives that facilitate the CO2 emission reduction actions. The new measures were as follows: Mandatory Reporting by “Designated Emitters”: Business operators who emit a large amount of CO2 through their business operations were designated as the “Designated Emitter” and imposed with annual reporting obligation regarding the amount of CO2 emission to the Minister. This “Designated Emitter” shall collect and report the CO2 emission data mandated by the Act and the government publishes the CO2 data. And, for the facilitation of the CO2 emission data collection, the Act introduced a new scheme in which the CO2 emission data used for the energy management and conservation mandatory report which is obligated for “Designated Energy Management Factories” under the Energy Conservation Act can be used as the data required for this CO2 emission report.
Revision in 2006: The amendment of this time introduced a scheme related to Kyoto Protocol’s “Domestic Credit Mechanism”, laying down the bank directory that can be used by the government and domestic business operators for the implementation of the Kyoto Mechanism Credit System. Revision in 2013 Replacement of the Kyoto Protocol Target Achievement Plan with the Plan for Global Warming Prevention Addition of Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3) as one of the targeted GHGs.
Revision in 2021: Under the amended Article 8 of the Act, the Japanese national government is required to formulate a plan on global warming countermeasures for cabinet approval, which includes inter alia GHG emissions reduction and absorption targets for each GHG and implementation measures necessary for achieving these targets. The plan is required to be reviewed every three years. In this regard, in 2021, the Japanese Cabinet approved a Plan for Global Warming Countermeasures, whereby it set out the target of reducing methane emissions by 11% by 2030 compared to 2013 (approximately 26.7 million t-CO2). However, the policies listed for achieving this target do not include policies concerning methane emissions from the energy sector.
In addition, business operators that emit substantially large GHGs in conjunction with their business activities (called “specified emitters”) are required to self-calculate their GHG emissions and report them annually for each business place of a certain size (Article 26). The data is then required to be aggregated and published by the MOE and METI (Article 29). In relation to methane emissions, specified emitters are those with over 3,000t-CO2e annual emissions from their business activities, which include mining of coal, exploration and production of crude oil or natural gas, refining of crude oil, and production of city gas. Further, businesses must also “endeavour” to prepare and publicize plans for reduction of GHG emissions associated with their business activities as well as the status of implementation measures for such plans (Article 36).
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