Chapter 1

Background of BioenergyUtilization Developmentin Japan

Tadashi Yokoyama and Hiroshi Yoshida

Res

Cop

Chapter Outline

1.1. Environmental Change with

Human Activities

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earch Approaches to Sustainable Biomass Systems. http://

yright � 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1.2. Japanese Biomass Utilization

Policy

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References 5

1.1. ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE WITH HUMAN ACTIVITIES

Tadashi Yokoyama

In recent times, the global temperature and carbon dioxide level in the atmo-sphere have increased rapidly. Although over at least the last 650,000 years,atmospheric temperatures and carbon dioxide levels have periodicallyincreased and decreased in a cyclical pattern (Jouzel et al., 2007), many peoplefeel that today’s climate change is different from previous climate changesbased on several observations such as the remarks issued by the US Environ-ment Protection Agency (EPA) on current climate change. First, none of thenatural causes of climate change, including variations in the Sun’s energy andthe Earth’s orbit, can fully explain the observed climate changes. Second,burning huge quantities of fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and natural gas, tosatisfy domestic and industrial energy needs is overloading the atmosphere withcarbon dioxide that contributes to the greenhouse effect. Human activities arealso adding other heat-trapping greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as methane andnitrous oxide, to the atmosphere. For hundreds of thousands of years, theconcentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere stayed between 200 and300 parts per million; however, today it has increased to nearly 400 partsper million, and is still rising. Along with other GHGs, this extra atmospheric

dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-404609-2.00001-5

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FIGURE 1.1 A thousand-year record of temperature variations for Germany and Central

Europe. (Source: Glaser and Riemann, 2009.)

2 Research Approaches to Sustainable Biomass Systems

carbon dioxide is trapping solar heat to cause climate change (http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/indicators/weather-climate/).

Figure 1.1 illustrates a thousand-year record of temperature variations forGermany and Central Europe based on documentary data obtained from Glaserand Reimann (2009); it suggests that after around 1900, temperature hascertainly increased from the baseline that represents the average temperaturefor the past 1000 years in Central Europe. Figure 1.2 shows the average carbondioxide concentration in December in Manua Los, Hawaii (Keeling et al.,2009). In 1958, the atmospheric carbon dioxide averaged 314.67 ppmv; itincreased 22.4% to 385.02 ppmv in 2008 over a period of 50 years.

FIGURE 1.2 Average carbon dioxide concentration every December in Manua Los, Hawaii.

3Chapter j 1 Background of Bioenergy Utilization Development in Japan

The conference held in Villach, Austria, 1985 was regarded as an importantmilestone in the international climate change debate. A major scientificassessment, “The role of carbon dioxide and of other greenhouse gases (GHGs)in climate variations and associated impacts”, presented at the conference wasbased on the investigation made by a small group of environmental scientistsand research managers associated with nongovernmental organizations from1983 to 1985. A general conclusion of the conference is the anticipation of anunprecedented rise of global mean temperature during the first half of thetwenty-first century.

With the scientific evidence accumulated, climate change appeared to beone of the important challenges to future economic prosperity in the interna-tional community during the late 1980s. In 1988, the Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change (IPCC) was established jointly by the World MeteorologicalOrganization and United Nations Environment Program. The IPCC empha-sized that the emissions resulting from human activities may be changing theEarth’s climate in its first assessment report published in 1990 (Houghton et al.,1990). In the wake of increased concerns about environmental issues, includingglobal warning, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Devel-opment (UNCED) was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992. This con-ference, also known as the Earth Summit, led to the United Nations FrameworkConvention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), together with the Rio Declarationon Environment and Development and other documents also known as “Agenda21”. The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize the atmosphericGHG concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenicinterference with Earth’s climate system. Subsequently, the Kyoto Protocol,which set a target to reduce GHG emissions by 5.2% below the 1990 levels by2012, was agreed upon as a protocol of the UNGCCC in December 1997.However, it was not until February 2005 that the Protocol eventually enteredinto force after long negotiations among the parties involved (United Nations,1998). Industrialized countries are required to ratify and implement the Pro-tocol in order to reduce GHG emissions below the quantified targets assigned toeach country during the first commitment period (2008–2012).

1.2. JAPANESE BIOMASS UTILIZATION POLICY

Hiroshi Yoshida

According to the Kyoto Protocol, Japan needs to achieve a 6% reduction ofGHG emissions to prompt the government of Japan to reconsider its energypolicy (Government of Japan, 2006). Based on various responses and inputsfrom the general public during the 1970s, the government decided to promotethe utilization of biomass fuel because it is a carbon-neutral energy source.The first oil crisis in 1973 also aroused public interest in the use of biomassenergy; however, the widespread use of biomass has not been realized

TABLE 1.1 Fundamental Principles and Governmental Policies of the

Basic Law on the Promotion of the Biomass Use, Japan

Fundamental principles on biomass

use Governmental policies

1. Promoting policies comprehensively,collectively, and effectively (article 3)

1. Establishing national and local plansfor expanding biomass use (articles20, 21)

2. Promoting policies for preventingclimate change (article 4)

2. Preparing proper infrastructure forbiomass use (article 22)

3. Promoting policies for organizing arecycling-based society (article 5)

3. Supporting biomass suppliers (article23)

4. Contributing to the development andimprovement of internationalcompetitiveness (article 6)

4. Promoting and spreading technolog-ical developments (article 24)

5. Contributing to activating agricul-ture, forestry, fishing, and rural areas(article 7)

5. Securing sufficient human resources(article 25)

6. Using biomass as much as possibleaccording to its properties (article 8)

6. Encouraging the use of biomassproducts (article 26)

7. Diversifying the energy sources(article 9)

7. Promoting voluntary action by pri-vate businesses and organizations(article 27)

8. Promoting voluntary action by par-ticipants and coordination betweenthem (articles 10, 18)

8. Promoting action of local municipal-ities (article 28)

9. Developing social understanding forthe biomass use (article 11)

9. Promoting international cooperation(article 29)

10. Preventing adverse effects on thestable supply of food (article 12)

10. Collecting and providing informa-tion about biomass, domesticallyand internationally (article 30)

11. Considering environmental protec-tion (article 13)

11. Promoting public understandingabout biomass (article 31)

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because the government prioritized the development of nuclear power ornatural gas in the national energy policy. The promotion of biomass utili-zation in Japan since the early 2000s has been motivated not only by GHGemissions reduction but also by other issues. First, international crude oilprices substantially increased during the early 2000s, which motivated thedevelopment of renewable energy sources as alternatives for foreign oil.Second, recycling organic wastes such as animal waste, sewage sludge, and

5Chapter j 1 Background of Bioenergy Utilization Development in Japan

other biomass disposals is urgently needed in accordance with the nationalmove to construct a recycle-oriented society. Third, the effective utilization ofabundant biomass resources available in rural areas is expected to revitalizerural economies that have been adversely affected during the long recessionby generating new industries and jobs in rural regions. With increasing publicconcerns over these issues, the government of Japan established the BiomassNippon Strategy (BNS) in 2002 (MAFF, 2009).

The BNS has four ultimate goals: (i) the prevention of global warning; (ii)the creation of a recycling-oriented society; (iii) the promotion of newcompetitive strategic industries for bioproducts, biofuel and biopower; and (iv)the revitalization of the agricultural, forestry, and fisheries industries as well aslocal communities. In line with these goals, initial specific targets were laid out,with 2002 as the base year and 2010 as the target year. These targets includeincreasing (i) biofuel use for the transportation sector from virtually zero to500,000 KL (crude oil basis); (ii) biomass energy use capacity from 68,000 KLto 3.08 million KL; and (iii) the recovery rate of unused biomass materials from20% to more than 25%.

In 2009, the government enacted the Basic Law on the Promotion ofBiomass Utilization by addressing fundamental principles, defining re-sponsibilities of the concerned institutions, and setting the fundamental con-ditions of the policy for comprehensive biomass utilization. Table 1.1summarizes the fundamental principles on biomass utilization and govern-mental policies of this law. Because the Basic Law addresses only the con-ceptual framework of policies, detailed policies are defined in the “Basic Planfor the Promotion of Biomass Utilization” established in 2010. The Basic Planhas provided basic strategies and various action plans to improve the perfor-mance of biomass-related projects with three specific objectives: (i) the revi-talization of 600 local communities by establishing local biomass plans; (ii) thestrengthening of international competency by achieving 500 billion yens ofoutput in biomass-related industries; and (iii) the prevention of climate changeand creation of a recycling-oriented society by achieving 26 million tons ofcarbon equivalents of emission reductions.

REFERENCES

Glaser, R., & Riemann, D. (2009). A thousand year record of climate variation for Central Europe

at a monthly resolution. Journal of Quaternary Science, 24, 437–449.

Government of Japan. (2006). Baiomasu nippon sogo senryaku (Biomass nippon comprehensive

strategy). <http://www.maff.go.jp/j/biomass/pdf/h18senryaku.pdf> Accessed 29.06.2012 [in

Japanese].

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Working Group I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. <http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/

far/wg_I/ipcc_far_wg_I_full_report.pdf> Accessed 11.06.2012.

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Jouzel, J., Masson-Delmotte, V., Cattani, O., Dreyfus, G., Falourd, S., Hoffmann, G., Minster, B.,

Nouet, J., Barnola, J. M., Chappellaz, J., Fischer, H., Gallet, J. C., Johnsen, S.,

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Raynaud, D., Schilt, A., Schwander, J., Selmo, E., Souchez, R., Spahni, R., Stauffer, B.,

Steffensen, J. P., Stenni, B., Stocker, T. F., Tison, J. L., Werner, M., & Wolff, E. W. (2007).

Orbital and Millennial Antarctic Climate Variability over the Past 800,000 Years. Science,

317(5839), 793–796.

Keeling, R. F., Piper, S. C., Bollenbacher, A. F., & Walker, J. S. (2009). Atmospheric Carbon

Dioxide Record from Mauna Loa. <http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/co2/sio-mlo.html>.

doi: 10.3334/CDIAC/atg.035, 2009.

Ministry of Agriculture. (2009). Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF). Japan: Japanese biomass policy.

<http://www.biomass-asia-workshop.jp/biomassws/06workshop/presentation/01Saigou.pdf>

[in Japanese].

United Nations. (1998). Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change.

<http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.pdf> Accessed 20.06.2012.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). <http://unfccc.int/

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