Japan able to cut emissions 11 pct by 2020-Trade Min

TOKYO, March 19 (Reuters) - Japan will be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 11 percent by 2020 if it utilises the best available technology to improve energy efficiency, a trade ministry study showed on Wednesday.

The country's gas emissions would total 1.214 billion tonnes in carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent in 2020, down from 1.359 billion tonnes in 2005, according to the study. But it noted it would cost more than $500 billion to replace existing technologies with cutting-edge ones between now and 2020.

A long to-do list to achieve that low emission level by 2020 includes solar panels being placed on the roofs of 70 percent of new homes, a 15-percent improvement in fuel efficiency of autos and a jump in nuclear power-generated electricity to 45 percent of supply from 30 percent currently.

The study, submitted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to an advisory panel on Wednesday, is expected to provide a basis for discussions within the country on how to share the costs associated with such a plan after Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda pledged earlier this year to shift Japan toward lower carbon emissions.

The study estimated households would shoulder a 51 percent share of the estimated total cost of 52.3 trillion yen ($522 billion), with the remaining 49 percent shared by corporate offices, factories and electric power companies.

The study is expected to emphasize Japan's recent proposals on how to reduce global emissions in the medium to long term.

While Japan, the world's fifth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, has backed a 50 percent reduction by 2050 together with other nations, it has also proposed setting a global target of 30 percent improvement in energy efficiency by 2020.

The next United Nations-led climate meeting is set to be held in Bangkok from March 31-April 4 to forge a global pact that binds all nations to emissions curbs to replace the current Kyoto Protocol.

Japan in July will host a meeting of leaders from the Group of Eight industrialised nations, at which climate change is a key agenda item.

The METI also study showed Japan's estimated total emissions by 2020 are 4 percent below the levels in 1990, the base year under the Kyoto Protocol. But that is only a minor reduction when compared with a plan by the European Commission to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.

The way emissions are calculated in the study was similar to Japan's proposal for post-Kyoto pact that top emitting nations assign near-term emissions targets for each industrial sector which, added up, would then form a national target. ($1=99.63 Yen) (Reporting by Risa Maeda; editing by Gary Crosse)