Japan's greenhouse emissions fall, recession bites

By Risa Maeda

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's greenhouse gas emissions tumbled 6.2 percent last year in a new sign on Wednesday that recession is doing the job of cutting emissions while the world struggles toward a U.N. pact to combat climate change.

In Singapore, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged countries in Asia and the Pacific region to embrace green growth but predicted a new accord to slow global warming may not be easy at talks in Copenhagen from December 7-18.

Japan's greenhouse gas emissions fell to 1.286 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in the year to March 2009 from a revised 1.371 billion tonnes in 2007/2008, a record high.

The latest figure is closer to the Japanese government's promise under the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol to limit emissions to 1.19 billion tonnes a year until 2012. Japan is the fifth biggest emitter after China, the United States, Russia and India.

"The figure suggests we're currently at levels sufficiently (low) enough to achieve the target," said Yasuo Takahashi, head of the environment ministry's climate change policy division.

"But we're not saying that we no longer need to carry out the emission-cut plans," he said of measures meant to curb rising temperatures and more droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, floods and rising seas.

The International Energy Agency has projected that the economic downturn may cut global emissions by up to 3 percent this year. Last month, the U.S. government projected a 6 percent fall in U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide in 2009.

Many experts say the declines may be only a brief respite from a rising global trend and that pressing economic problems may distract from Copenhagen. U.S. unemployment rose to 10.2 percent in October, the highest since 1983.