The sluggish economy worldwide has few bright spots, but Japan can take some consolation with the news that its economic troubles have at least led to some environmental positives.
An analysis by the Nikkei revealed that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from four Japanese steelmakers had slumped by 11.1 per cent in the last fiscal year from fiscal 1990 – while those from five major car markers were 39 per cent lower.
According to the report, major blast furnace steelmakers showed sharply reduced greenhouse gas emissions in 2008, offering a timely boost to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s pledge to slash emissions in the country by 25 per cent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels. However, the reduction is almost certainly down to the recession, suggesting that there is still no easy solution to reducing emissions while maintaining economic growth.
The same can be said for the reductions reported from Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Fuji Heavy Industries as domestic output shrank by 17 per cent in the last fiscal year.
In separate news, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation also reported that the country’s crude steel output dropped by 29.6 per cent year on year to 43.3million tones in the April-September term – that’s the lowest total for any half-year period for 40 years.
