Japan CO2 emissions soar; may miss Kyoto targets; more biofuels in sight as voluntary efforts by business urged?

In Japan, the national government said that the country’s greenhouse gas emissions rose 2.3 percent last March, compared to March 2007, as a result of the closure of the country’s largest nuclear power generation plant. With the impact of the closure now apparent, Japan said that it is in danger of missing its Kyoto emissions targets, and called for companies to focus on additional voluntary efforts to reduce emissions. The use of ethanol and biodiesel have been shown to reduce vehicle emissions. Japan has a 2008-12 target of 1.2 billion tons of CO2, but is now producing emissions equivalent to 1.371 billion tons of CO2 equivalents.

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