Tokyo sets carbon dioxide emission reduction target of 8 percent

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Offices must reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 8 percent by fiscal 2014, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has decided, as part of widespread emissions reductions across the capital beginning fiscal 2010.

Hotels, hospitals, offices and so on must cut emissions by 8 percent over the next five years, with factories and other industrial enterprises required to throttle back by 6 percent. Cuts are based on a consecutive three-year average level, calculated from emissions levels between 2002 and 2007.

The ultimate goal is to reduce emissions across the capital by a quarter from their fiscal 2000 level by fiscal 2020, with the fiscal 2014 target the first step toward that.

The new regulations, revised last June, affect roughly 1,300 large businesses in Tokyo with yearly energy requirements equating to 1,500 kiloliters of crude oil. Businesses failing to cut back will be named and forced to pay a maximum fine of 500,000 yen.