Abstract
This paper outlines the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission trends in the residential and commercial sectors in Japan. The results showed that the increase in residential energy consumption in Japan is mainly caused by the widespread use of heating equipment, hot water supply apparatus, and other household electrical appliances. On the other hand, it was indicated that the increase in commercial energy use is mainly due to the increase of the floor area of buildings, particularly hotels, hospitals, and department stores. The paper also describes political measures to promote energy conservation, including the building energy conservation standard, Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency, top runner programs, financial incentives, and the dissemination of the Cool Biz concept. Finally, the projections of CO2 emissions until 2050 are presented.
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Notes
In May 2007, the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)/WG3 was approved in Bangkok, Thailand. Two of the current authors have participated in the working group for Chapter 6 Residential and Commercial Buildings of AR4, IPCC/WG3. In relation to this work, the Building Alleviation Policy Review Committee (Chairperson: Prof. Shuzo Murakami, Building Research Institute of Japan) was established in November 2004 with the cooperation of the Institute for Building Environment and Energy Conservation (IBEC), and the Global Industrial and Social Progress Research Institute (GISPRI) under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan. In this meeting, up-to-date information of energy consumption and mitigation technologies in Japan was prepared and compiled. This report, entitled “Energy Consumption, Efficiency, Conservation, and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in Japan’s Building Sector,” was later published by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in association with Dr. Mark Levine in December 2006 (Murakami et al. 2006).
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Murakami, S., Levine, M.D., Yoshino, H. et al. Overview of energy consumption and GHG mitigation technologies in the building sector of Japan. Energy Efficiency 2, 179–194 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-008-9040-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-008-9040-8