Japan utilities set 2020/21 CO2 emissions target

TOKYO, April 17 (Reuters) - Japan's electric power sector aims to improve carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per unit of electricity generated to around 73 percent of the 2008/09 level by the business year 2020/21, an industry association said on Friday. Hurt by the extended shutdown of a quake-hit major nuclear plant, the power sector's CO2 emissions per kilowatt-hour were estimated to be around 0.45 kg in the 2008/09 business year that ended last month, roughly in line with the previous year's 0.453 kg, the Federation of Power Companies of Japan said.

In the year starting in April 2020, the sector will aim to lower CO2 emissions to about 0.33 kg through the planned development of new nuclear reactors and advanced combined cycle thermal power generation units, the federation said.

The electric power sector has voluntarily pledged to the government to cut CO2 emissions per kilowatt-hour by 20 percent to 0.34 kg on average, compared with 1990 levels, over the five business years that started in April 2008 by buying credits to offset domestic emissions under Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism.

The federation did not give an estimate for the power sector's total CO2 emissions in 2008/09. The emissions totalled about 417 million tonnes in 2007/08, up 14.3 percent, hurt by the shutdown of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant operated by Tokyo Electric (9501.T) after a major quake in July 2007. The federation's chairman, Shosuke Mori, who also serves as president of second-biggest utility Kansai Electric (9503.T), said the federation maintains its September outlook to buy 190 million tonnes of carbon credits in the five years to 2012 to meet the sector's climate pledges under the Kyoto Protocol.

Federation data showed on Friday that power demand from large industrial users fell 24.4 percent in March from a year earlier, marking the sixth straight month of decline amid a deep recession.

That compared with a slight improvement from a 26.4 percent fall hit in February, but Mori told reporters it was too early to judge if demand had hit bottom. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Michael Watson)