(For a related story click on: [ID:nT173861]) Nov 12 (Reuters) - Japanese greenhouse gas emissions rose 2.3 percent to hit a record high in the year ended in March, hurt by the extended shutdown of some nuclear power plants, while emissions from manufacturers continued to rise, government data showed on Wednesday. Greenhouse gas emissions totalled 1.371 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent in 2007/08, compared with 1.340 billion tonnes a year earlier and versus 1.261 billion tonnes in the Kyoto Protocol's benchmark year of 1990. Of the latest total, energy-based CO2 from manufacturers, the country's biggest polluting segment, stood at 476 million tonnes, up 3.6 percent from 2006/07 but down 1.3 percent from 1990. Manufacturers' emissions rose by 16.4 million tonnes in 2007/08 due to an increase in industrial output and higher per-kilowatt emissions by utilities, Hiroyasu Tokuda, director at the environment ministry's climate change policy division, told reporters in Tokyo. Transportation-sector emissions, meanwhile, fell 1.6 percent from the previous year, or 4.1 million tonnes, due mainly to a decline in auto travel. Service-sector emissions rose 1.2 percent, or 2.8 million tonnes, as a hotter summer and colder winter compared with the previous year boosted air-conditioning use, Tokuda said. Household emissions rose 8.4 percent, or 13.90 million tonnes, on higher use of electricity for air-conditioning. Emissions from power plants and oil refiners rose 3.6 percent, or 2.80 million tonnes. Following is a table of energy-based CO2 emissions for 1990, 2006 and 2007, divided by different domestic sectors, with each sector's percentage changes from 1990 in brackets. Energy-based emissions account for 93 percent of Japan's total. The data for 2006 are revised. Emissions in millions of tonnes and rounded. --------------------------------------------------------------- EMITTERS 1990 2006 2007 --------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturers 482 460 476 (-4.7) (-1.3) Transportation 217 253 249 (+16.5) (+14.6) Services 164 230 233 (+40.0) (+41.7) Households 127 166 180 (+30.2) (+41.1) Utilities 67.9 77.1 79.8 (+13.6) (+17.7) TOTAL 1,059 1,186 1,218 (+12.0) (+15.0) ---------------------------------------------------------------- (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori)
China's Premier Wen Jiabao delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of Beijing high-level conference on climate change at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing November 7, 2008. REUTERS/Jason ...
