Japan recorded the lowest greenhouse gas emissions since the 2013 fiscal year. However, the achievement is not enough. Launching Kyodo News, Tuesday, April 14, Japan's effective emissions in fiscal year 2024 remain 15 million tons above the government's annual plan, so the interim target is again missed.
Until March 2025, Japan's effective emissions were recorded at 994 million tons of carbon dioxide. This figure is down 28.7 percent compared to fiscal year 2013 and for the first time is below 1 billion tons. Even so, Japan still failed to meet its annual target. This is the second failure since fiscal year 2022.
Officials at Japan's Ministry of the Environment said emissions were up and down from year to year, but the trend was generally still declining and were judged to remain on track to meet the final target.
Japan is targeting net zero emissions by 2050. To get there, the country is aiming for an effective reduction of 60 percent by 2035 and 73 percent by 2040, compared to 2013 levels. Effective emissions here are emissions after deducting carbon absorption from forests and other natural sources.
Japanese Environment Minister Hirotaka Ishihara was quoted by Kyodo News as saying that he had asked the parties concerned to strengthen and improve existing measures so that the emission reduction target could be achieved.
In its report, Kyodo News said that one of the problems was that natural absorption was slowing down. According to the ministry, the absorption of carbon by terrestrial forests fell to 52.30 million tons in fiscal year 2024 compared to the previous year. The reason is that the age of trees in Japan is getting older. Meanwhile, the absorption of carbon from coastal and marine ecosystems has hardly changed, remaining in the range of 320,000 tons.
These data show that Japan's emission reduction is still continuing, but the pace is not enough to meet the annual target. At the same time, carbon absorption by forests is also slowing down due to tree aging.
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