Osaka - Monday, September 19, 2011
Nikkei, Japan’s leading newspaper specialized in business and economy reported today that Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has set up a policy of giving obligations to real estate and construction companies to meet a specified energy saving criteria set by the Japanese government for all new housings and buildings to be constructed in the future.
1. What is the overview of the policy?
The government is to set limits to energy consumption according to types of housings and buildings and to request efficiency enhancement of energy consumption such as air conditioning using heat insulators. The government aims to control and reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emission the they believe this kind of policy is effective because according to MLIT, GHG emission from constructions cover over 30% of total GHG emitted in Japan.
After 2020 construction will be not approved unless it meets the requirements set by the government. Until 2020, companies and individuals who have met requirements will be given tax incentives.
2. Isn’t there any energy saving criteria today?
Yes, there is. Such criteria for housings were set in 1999 but it is not obligatory. It costs addition 10% to construct houses meeting the criteria; therefore, only less than 40% of new houses meet the criteria.
3. How will the government proceed with setting and implementing the policy?
MLIT will set up a meeting with authorities from industries and academia in October to discuss concrete measures for obligation of meeting energy saving criteria. MLIT aims to revise the legislation regarding energy saving construction in 2013, discussing and collaborating with Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Ministry of the Environment （MOE）.
To achieve such a timeline, the government is to draft new criteria by the end of the year, including limits of energy used in air conditioning and lighting depending on the types of housings and buildings. The details of the criteria will be tailored to meet local needs depending on the regions, considering regions with heavy snow in winter.
4. What is the concept of the new criteria?
New criteria will be set so that energy consumption will be 20-30% less than normal housings and buildings. To meet the criteria, heat insulators are to be used in walls and ceilings. When solar battery is implemented, energy generated by solar power will be subtracted from the energy consumption calculated.
5. When will auditing of energy saving construction be implemented?
It will be implemented in 2012. When construction companies make application in building new housings or buildings, local government will check the types of materials to be used.
When energy saving criteria is met, cost of energy saving materials used in construction will be subtracted from income to be taxed.
And for individuals, the government is to study incentives such as increase tax reduction of their housing loans.
Full implementation of the policy requires much preparation and time so the government aims to implement fully in 2020. Until then, the government would like to implement auditing systems and tax incentives to proliferate energy saving materials meeting the criteria.
6. Will obligation to meet the criteria applied to current housings and buildings?
No. This is because it is time consuming to audit all current housings and buildings, and if renovation of current housings and buildings is to be made compulsory it is quite possible that the general public will refuse.
Having said that, MLIT believes that the renovations will take place because in general market value of energy saving housings and buildings are higher.
There is also a concept of distinguishing energy saving housings and buildings from those that are not of energy saving.
Resources:-
MLIT of Japan will set up a policy of giving obligations to real estate and construction companies to meet a specified energy saving criteria set by the Japanese government for all new housing and buildings to be constructed in the future. The government is to set limits to energy consumption according to types of housings and buildings and to request efficiency enhancement of energy consumption such as air conditioning using heat insulators. The auditing system will be implemented in 2012. The policy will be fully implemented from 2020 and until then incentives will be given to companies and individuals that meet the criteria.
2009年12月6日日曜日
GHG Emission Reduction Outlook of Japanese Manufacturers (13.9%) vs. Government’s Target (25%)
Saturday, December 5, 2009 – Osaka, Japan
On December 3, Nikkei, Japan’s leading newspaper specialized in economy/business and news, reported that according to their survey result of Environment Management, outlook of total GHG (Global Greenhouse Gas) reduction by primary Japanese companies by 2010 is 13.9% vs. 1990. Prime Minister Hatayama had set an extremely aggressive target of 25% and made a speech on it in the at the United Nation’s Climate Change Summit held on September 22 in New York, as mentioned in the previous article Japan Takes Lead in GHG Emission Reduction in the UN’s Climate Change Summit, and therefore there is a big gap between the target and the outlook. If the companies are to achieve the target, it is possible that they are forced to bear heavy burden such as purchasing emission allocation from overseas and therefore they cannot continue production in Japan.
The survey was executed in the beginning of November to which 835 companies including non-manufacturers answered. To the question regarding the degree of GHG emission reduction by 2020 by introducing energy saving equipments etc., 160 manufacturers answered and the weighted average was 13.9% vs. 1990. Industry section including manufacturers covers 37% of total Japan domestic GHG emission. 183 non-manufacturers (excluding electricity and gas companies) answered and their weighted average was 14.3% vs. 1990.
Mid-term target set under the previous Aso administration was 15% reduction vs. 2005, which is equivalent to 8% vs. 1990 and this target can be achieved without problem, but not the target set by the Hatoyama administration. Looking the outlook by industry, the drivers of GHG emission reduction are electronics that expects demand increase of solar batteries and EV cars is 33.1%, and automobile and components is 28.1%. Indeed, companies in such industries are the main players in top 20 of the Environment Management Ranking.
Environment Management Ranking
(Source: Nikkei, translated by the author)
Ranking(2009) / Ranking(2008) / Company Name / Score (500 = max)
1 / 4 / Panasonic / 490
2 / 17 / Sharp / 487
3 / 14 / Mitsubishi Electric / 485
4 / 5 / NEC / 483
5 / 1 / Toyota / 482
6 / 2 / Toshiba / 478
7 / 9 / Kyocera / 474
7 / 11 / Canon / 474
9 / 6 / Fuji Film Holdings / 473
9 / 22 / Nissan / 473
9 / 30 / Canon Electronics / 473
12 / 6 / Denso / 470
13 / 34 / Toyota Boshoku / 469
13 / 29 / Sumitomo Rubber Industries / 469
13 / 12 / Ricoh / 469
16 / 40 / TDK / 467
16 / 13 / Sanyo / 467
18 / 86 / NEC Tokin / 466
19 / 14 / Toyota Gosei / 465
19 / 24 / Dainippon Printing / 465
Scores were calculated in 5 fields: global warming countermeasure, product countermeasure, resource recycling, environment management organization, and countermeasures in contamination and biological diversity. Manufacturers were ranked by total scores of the 5 fields across the industry, and non-manufacturers were ranked by their own industry.
Panasonic, ranked #4 last year, was #1 this year, with highest score in environment management organization, and countermeasures in contamination and biological diversity, and with second highest score in global warming countermeasure. Department specialized in environment management strategy has been established which is directly controlled by the CEO, which has been promoting company-wide purchasing, equipment investment and development. As a result, they succeeded in promoting natural energy equipment installation such as natural gas implementation and use of solar energy to generate electricity to achieve their own GHG emission reduction mid-term target of minus 510 ton vs. 2006 in 2008, 1 year ahead of the original plan. Increasing energy saving products, that are the #1 in energy saving in its product category at the point of launch, totaled 233 in 2008, which was 3 times that of 2007, and Mr. Ohtsubo, the CEO, says that this will be further promoted when the acquisition of Sanyo is complete.
Sharp, ranked #17 last year, was #2 this year, with highest score in environment management organization together with Panasonic. Long term target is set in which by 2020 GHG emission reduction is to be tripled from original plan with new energy saving products by such measures as leveraging solar batteries.
Mitsubishi Electric, ranked #3 this year, has set the target of GHG emission upon production by 2021 by 30% vs. 1990. Representatives for this task have already been located in worldwide production sites and environmental experts from Global & Group HQ have been visiting the sites once every two years. NEC, ranked #4 this year, scored the highest in global warming countermeasures and products.
Toyota, that had been #1 for three consecutive years, was #5 this year. They have been aggressively launching EV cars, accumulating total reaching 2 million cars at the end of August this year. Nissan, which has also been aggressively promoting eco-car strategy, improved its ranking from #22 to #9.
The gap between gap between the outlook from the survey result of 13.9% for manufactures and the aggressive target of 25% set by the government and the current outlook of 13.9% is large and eliminating the gap is extremely tough. However, the author believes that the companies are capable of further driving innovation to drastically decrease GHG emission, eliminating the gap in the end.
On December 3, Nikkei, Japan’s leading newspaper specialized in economy/business and news, reported that according to their survey result of Environment Management, outlook of total GHG (Global Greenhouse Gas) reduction by primary Japanese companies by 2010 is 13.9% vs. 1990. Prime Minister Hatayama had set an extremely aggressive target of 25% and made a speech on it in the at the United Nation’s Climate Change Summit held on September 22 in New York, as mentioned in the previous article Japan Takes Lead in GHG Emission Reduction in the UN’s Climate Change Summit, and therefore there is a big gap between the target and the outlook. If the companies are to achieve the target, it is possible that they are forced to bear heavy burden such as purchasing emission allocation from overseas and therefore they cannot continue production in Japan.
The survey was executed in the beginning of November to which 835 companies including non-manufacturers answered. To the question regarding the degree of GHG emission reduction by 2020 by introducing energy saving equipments etc., 160 manufacturers answered and the weighted average was 13.9% vs. 1990. Industry section including manufacturers covers 37% of total Japan domestic GHG emission. 183 non-manufacturers (excluding electricity and gas companies) answered and their weighted average was 14.3% vs. 1990.
Mid-term target set under the previous Aso administration was 15% reduction vs. 2005, which is equivalent to 8% vs. 1990 and this target can be achieved without problem, but not the target set by the Hatoyama administration. Looking the outlook by industry, the drivers of GHG emission reduction are electronics that expects demand increase of solar batteries and EV cars is 33.1%, and automobile and components is 28.1%. Indeed, companies in such industries are the main players in top 20 of the Environment Management Ranking.
Environment Management Ranking
(Source: Nikkei, translated by the author)
Ranking(2009) / Ranking(2008) / Company Name / Score (500 = max)
1 / 4 / Panasonic / 490
2 / 17 / Sharp / 487
3 / 14 / Mitsubishi Electric / 485
4 / 5 / NEC / 483
5 / 1 / Toyota / 482
6 / 2 / Toshiba / 478
7 / 9 / Kyocera / 474
7 / 11 / Canon / 474
9 / 6 / Fuji Film Holdings / 473
9 / 22 / Nissan / 473
9 / 30 / Canon Electronics / 473
12 / 6 / Denso / 470
13 / 34 / Toyota Boshoku / 469
13 / 29 / Sumitomo Rubber Industries / 469
13 / 12 / Ricoh / 469
16 / 40 / TDK / 467
16 / 13 / Sanyo / 467
18 / 86 / NEC Tokin / 466
19 / 14 / Toyota Gosei / 465
19 / 24 / Dainippon Printing / 465
Scores were calculated in 5 fields: global warming countermeasure, product countermeasure, resource recycling, environment management organization, and countermeasures in contamination and biological diversity. Manufacturers were ranked by total scores of the 5 fields across the industry, and non-manufacturers were ranked by their own industry.
Panasonic, ranked #4 last year, was #1 this year, with highest score in environment management organization, and countermeasures in contamination and biological diversity, and with second highest score in global warming countermeasure. Department specialized in environment management strategy has been established which is directly controlled by the CEO, which has been promoting company-wide purchasing, equipment investment and development. As a result, they succeeded in promoting natural energy equipment installation such as natural gas implementation and use of solar energy to generate electricity to achieve their own GHG emission reduction mid-term target of minus 510 ton vs. 2006 in 2008, 1 year ahead of the original plan. Increasing energy saving products, that are the #1 in energy saving in its product category at the point of launch, totaled 233 in 2008, which was 3 times that of 2007, and Mr. Ohtsubo, the CEO, says that this will be further promoted when the acquisition of Sanyo is complete.
Sharp, ranked #17 last year, was #2 this year, with highest score in environment management organization together with Panasonic. Long term target is set in which by 2020 GHG emission reduction is to be tripled from original plan with new energy saving products by such measures as leveraging solar batteries.
Mitsubishi Electric, ranked #3 this year, has set the target of GHG emission upon production by 2021 by 30% vs. 1990. Representatives for this task have already been located in worldwide production sites and environmental experts from Global & Group HQ have been visiting the sites once every two years. NEC, ranked #4 this year, scored the highest in global warming countermeasures and products.
Toyota, that had been #1 for three consecutive years, was #5 this year. They have been aggressively launching EV cars, accumulating total reaching 2 million cars at the end of August this year. Nissan, which has also been aggressively promoting eco-car strategy, improved its ranking from #22 to #9.
The gap between gap between the outlook from the survey result of 13.9% for manufactures and the aggressive target of 25% set by the government and the current outlook of 13.9% is large and eliminating the gap is extremely tough. However, the author believes that the companies are capable of further driving innovation to drastically decrease GHG emission, eliminating the gap in the end.
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