In Japan, various efforts of global warming measures to achieve the reduction target of Kyoto Protocol were made eagerly. One of such efforts was the introduction of voluntary emission reduction credit systems. From 2008, the Japan-Verified emission reduction (J-Ver) system was started mainly for the purpose of producing emission reduction credits to use for carbon offset activities. Also from 2008, the domestic version of clean development mechanism (CDM) was started mainly for the purpose of produce credits to use the voluntary action program in the large-scale industries. After the ending of the first commitment period of Kyoto Protocol, these systems were integrated to the Japan Credit (J-Credit) system in 2013. In December 2015, the Paris agreement on post Kyoto GHGs reduction was finally approved by many countries including various developing countries. The specific character of Paris Agreement is a flexible setting of the target for reducing or mitigating GHGs emissions. In May 2016, Japanese Government has authorized the new target of GHGs reduction to achieve 26% reduction from the emission level in 2013 up to 2030. In addition, Japan need to intensify GHGs reduction measures, because she already comitted 50% (or 80%) reduction of GHGs in 2050 in the long-run. Therefore, the voluntary emission reduction systems will be one of important options to achieve the GHGs reduction target in Japan from now on. In this paper, I made an analysis on the development of voluntary emission reduction systems in Japan by focusing especially on the situations of J-credit system integrated after 2013, because it seemed that the activities of this system have not been always vital up to now but this system will be indispensable for users in the demand side to join GHGs reduction activities positively.
展开▼