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Greenhouse gas emission in Japan still above international protocol |
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September 23, 2000
TOKYO, SEPT 22 (AP) - Japan's greenhouse gas emissions dropped in the 1998 fiscal year from the year before, but were still above the target set by a 1997 protocol to fight global warming, a government report said Friday. The overall greenhouse gas emission was 1,336 million tons in fiscal 1998, 3.5 percent down from the year before, the government report said. But it was still 5 percent above the set target of 1,272 million tons, the figure based on the agreement made at the global warming conference in Kyoto in 1997. This was the first time since fiscal 1993 that a total amount of greenhouse gas emission decreased from the year before, according to the report, compiled by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Cabinet. The report did not provide reasons for the drop, but did point out that emissions of carbon dioxide from industrial sources had dropped significantly, suggesting that Japan's economic slowdown could have played a role. Greenhouse gases are blamed for contributing to global warming by trapping heat in the earth's atmosphere. The government report said the total amount of carbon dioxide emission in fiscal 1998 was down 3.8 percent from the previous year, but it was up 5.6 percent from the fiscal 1990 level. The 1997 Kyoto accord would require industrial nations to reduce their release greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 to about 5 percent below what they were in 1990. The protocol has not yet entered into force because most governments are holding off on ratification until agreement is reached on how it will actually work. |