Carbon dioxide emissions from industrial activities totaled 486.09 million tons last year, marking the second consecutive year of increase, the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) said Friday.
The figure, covering 36 industrial sectors, is 1.2 percent above 1990 levels, a standard to which the industrial sector aims to return by 2010, as called for in the unratified Kyoto Protocol. The industrial sectors included in the measurement accounted for 42.7 percent of total CO2 emissions in 1990.
In 1999, industry-produced emissions of CO2 a major cause of global warming, were 0.1 percent above the 1990 levels.
Teruaki Masumoto, chairman of Keidanren's global environment subcommittee and executive vice president of Tokyo Electric Power Co., said it would be folly for Japan to move ahead in the spirit of the Kyoto pact without the United States committed to paring greenhouse gas emissions.
"From the perspective of an effective (treaty), U.S. participation (in global efforts to tackle global warming) is crucial," Masumoto said.
Amid criticism from citizen's groups and the government, Keidanren is also working to heighten the transparency of its annual report on voluntary trimming greenhouse gases, Masumoto said.