Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions for the year ended March 2011 rose 4.2 percent as the economy recovered from the 2008 financial crisis, the Environment Ministry said today, exceeding a previous estimate.
The ministry had announced in December a preliminary figure of a 3.9 percent increase in emissions. Greenhouse gas output rose to 1.258 billion metric tons as record hot summer in some regions and a cold winter that followed contributed to higher power consumption, it said today.
Japan committed to reduce production of gases blamed for global warming by 6 percent from 2008 through 2012 from 1990 levels under the Kyoto Protocol which limits releases by industrial nations. The country cut emissions by an average 11 percent annually under the first three years of the treaty, according to the ministry. Those figures include credits Japan earned for emission offsets outside the country.
