The Governement of Japan has taken measures to tackle the climate change, where adopted the Climate Change Action Plan (1990) and the Climate Change Programme (1998) and the Guidelines for Measures to Prevent Global Warming (1999). The Government has adopted the New Climate Change Programme on 19 March 2002, which aims to stipulate policies and measures necessary for the achievement of the 6% emissions reduction commitmene under the Kyoto Protocol. The Government also submitted to the Diet the Bill on Amendments of the Climate Change Policy Law as well as the Kyoto Protocol for its approval to becoming a Party to the Protocol. After the passage of the Bill as well as Diet's approval, the Government became a Party to the Protocol and upgrade the Climate Change Policy Programme into the Statutory Kyoto Target Achievement Plan.
Under the Climate Change Programme, the Government of Japan shall conduct comprehensive review of the progress of the Programme in 2004 and 2007. And also, the Climate Change Policy Law stipulates that the Kyoto Protocol Target Achievement Plan would be developed in the entry into force of the Protocol. Based on the results of these reviews and consultations with various stakeholders, the Government drafted the Plan to ensure the achievement of the 6% emissions reduction commitment.
The Government of Japan has approved on April 28, 2005 the Kyoto Protocol Target Achievement Plan drafted by the Global Warming Prevention Headquarter. In line with the Plan, the Government is committed to make every effort in combating the climate change towards the realization of the 6% reduction target committed in the Kyoto Protocol. Under this Plan, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Ministry of the Environment (MOE) have commissioned NEDO to carry ourt credit acquisition in FY2006. The information below is an outline of the Plan and is not an official record by the Government of Japan.

• Achieve the 6% reduction commitment under the Kyoto Protocol
• Ensure the long-term and continuous implementation of greenhouse gases emissions reduction on a global scale

1. Contribute to both the environment and the economy: Climate change policy shall be developed and implemented so as to contribute to both the environment and the economy through technological innovation.
2. Promote technological innovation: In order to achieve the 6% emission reduction commitment, it is important to accelerate technological innovation including energy conservation and unutilized energy.
3. Promote participation and cooperation of all the stakeholders: It is essential that all the stakeholders including local governments, industries and citizens must share efforts to address the climate change.
4. Utilize various policy measures: The Achievement Plan stipulates to make effective use of all the policy measures necessary for the achievement of the 6% reduction commitment under the Kyoto Protocol.
5. Emphasize the evaluation and review process: After the formulation of the Achievement Plan, the progress of domestic policies and measures and the state of GHG emissions shall be assessed and reviewed under the PDCA (plan-do-check-action) process.
6. Ensure international cooperation in the climate change policy: In order to ensure the effectiveness of measures to tackle the climate change, it is important to establish a common rule in which all counties participate.

The Achievement Plan has established the following quantitative targets for limitation and removal of GHG emission to achieve the 6% emission reduction commitment under the Kyoto Protocol. In attaining these targets, the Government shall continue its emission reduction efforts beyond these targets where possible.

Table: Targets of GHG Reduction / Absorption

• Policies and Measures on GHG Emissions Reduction and Sinks
1. GHG emissions reduction: The Achievement Plan is formulated gas specific measures, where developments specific measures for energy related CO2, CO2 from non-energy sources, methane, N2O, HFC and other gases. In order to reduce energy related CO2 emissions, the Government will promote measures on energy related apparatus as well as on individual facility/stakeholder and take measures to shift socio-economy including urban/regional structure and public transportation infrastructure into low carbon one.
2. GHG sinks: The Government will ensure the 3.9% removal by sinks and comprehensively and steadily promote to take measures for securing absorption and urban greening.
3. Kyoto Mechanisms: Public and private sectors will further cooperate to promote the effective utilization of Kyoto Mechanisms, by which environment-related technologies are transferred to developing counties in exchange for emission credits. Measures to facilitate credit acquisition have been discussed with a view to implementing them from FY2006. Then, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Ministry of the Environment (MOE) have commissioned NEDO to carry ourt credit acquisition.
• Cross-Sectoral Measures
  The Achievement Plan is elaborated to promote cross-sectoral measures in order to achieve the 6% emission reduction commitment. Under the Plan, the Government has taken various measures including GHG accounting and reporting system, promoting environmental consideration in business activities, public awareness raising campaign and initiative by public institutions. The Government of Japan will promote the building of a foundation for efforts by citizens of all levels toward voluntary warming countermeasures by having entities that emit greenhouse gases calculate and report their emissions themselves.
  Also, the Government of Japan will promote efforts by businesses to voluntarily and actively engage in environment-conscious business activities.
• Basic Measures
  The Achievement Plan stipulates to take basic policy and measures including establishment of domestic system to account GHG emissions and absorption, promotion of technology development and R&D, and promotion of international cooperation
• Organizational Arrangements
  
  • Annual review and quantitative assessment of the Achievement Plan in FY2007:
    In order to ensure the effectiveness of the Achievement Plan and reliable achievement of the 6% emission reduction commitment under the Protocol, it is essential to develop and collect comprehensive data concerning the status of achievement of targets for each greenhouse gas and for other categories as well as data concerning the progress of individual measures and policies. It is also essential to carry out an appropriately transparent ex-post evaluation, and flexibly review and supplement measures and policies.
    In FY2007, the Global Warming Prevention Headquarters will carry out an annual review and quantitative evaluation of the Plan, emissions and removal projections are to be evaluated by decomposing greenhouse gases into the factors of the volume of activities and greenhouse gas emissions per unit of activities. Based on these evaluation results, in order to reliably achieve the 6% reduction commitment under the Protocol, as necessary the Government of Japan will comprehensively review the targets for each gas and other measures.
  • Development of promotional measures and environment:
    The Global Warming Prevention Headquarters was established inside the Cabinet on December 19, 1997 with the aim of steadily implementing the Kyoto Protocol adopted at the Third Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP3) and to comprehensively advance concrete and effective measures for the prevention of global warming.
    In order for each entity to continuously advance measures and policies to realize a society that exits from inducing global warming, it is important to develop a systematic promotion structure. The Government will flexibly establish working groups tailored to each issue, centering on the Global Warming Prevention Headquarters with the Prime Minister as its chief and all ministers as its members. The Steering Committee of the Global Warming Prevention Headquarters, a conference of Director-Generals from each ministry, and the concerned ministries and agencies also are to closely collaborate to make efforts to develop the promotion structure