Japan's energy consumption posts record 6.8% fall in FY 08

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TOKYO, Oct. 30 Kyodo -
Japan's energy consumption dropped a record 6.8 percent in the year through
last March from the previous year, affected by weaker demand from factories
amid the economic slowdown, the industry ministry said Friday.
The country's carbon dioxide emissions associated with energy consumption in
fiscal 2008 decreased 6.7 percent, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
said in a preliminary report. Compared with 1990 levels, however, the emissions
increased 7.4 percent.
Under the Kyoto Protocol adopted at a U.N. climate change conference in 1997,
Japan is required to cut emissions 6 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.
The energy consumption fall in fiscal 2008 was the biggest since the government
began collecting data in 1965.
The industrial sector including manufacturers used 11 percent less energy than
in fiscal 2007. The transportation sector consumed 4 percent less and the
commercial and residential sectors used 3.2 percent less.
In order to fight global warming, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has pledged to
cut carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent from 1990
levels by 2020 on the condition that large economies such as China and India
join a post-Kyoto framework being discussed to reduce such emissions.
==Kyodo
2009-10-30 23:40:49