CO emission hotspots analysis on supply chains for wooden houses in Japan.

Ninety-four percent of CO emissions induced by final demand in the global construction sector stem from the supply chain. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the CO emission hotspots within the supply chain and implement targeted reduction measures. This study proposed a supply chain clustering approach considering the functional unit of houses and identified CO emission hotspots within the supply chain structure of wooden houses, which accounted for approximately 90% of the total housing stock in Japan.

Reduction of life-cycle CO emissions by expanding car-sharing services: A case study on Japan.

Carbon neutrality is a growing concern for all global economies. We considered the number of new and used cars registered during 2009-2018 in Japan and estimated the total number of private and shared cars, assuming that when owners abandoned their old cars, a certain percentage of the owners chose to use a car-sharing service (i.e.

Production efficiency and cost reduction potential of biodiesel fuel plants using waste cooking oil in Japan.

Biodiesel fuel (BDF) is a potentially carbon-neutral fuel that could play a potentially important role in preventing global warming. However, its high production cost poses a challenge for many BDF producers. To establish an efficient method for BDF production and increase its cost competitiveness, the production efficiencies of 35 BDF plants in Japan, which produce BDF from waste cooking oil, were evaluated.

Consumption in the G20 nations causes particulate air pollution resulting in two million premature deaths annually.

Worldwide exposure to ambient PM causes over 4 million premature deaths annually. As most of these deaths are in developing countries, without internationally coordinated efforts this polarized situation will continue. As yet, however, no studies have quantified nation-to-nation consumer responsibility for global mortality due to both primary and secondary PM particles.

Critical supply chains for mitigating PM emission-related mortalities in India.

Air pollution and its health-related effects are a major concern globally, and many people die from air pollution-related diseases each year. This study employed a structural path analysis combined with a health impact inventory database analysis to estimate the number of consumption-based PM emission-related deaths attributed to India's power supply sector. We identified critical supply chain paths for direct (production) electricity use and indirect (consumption) use.

Determinants of technical inefficiency in China's coal-fired power plants and policy recommendations for CO mitigation.

This study applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate the technical efficiency (TE) and CO emission reduction potential of 1270 coal-fired power plants in 28 Chinese provinces and municipalities. The large dataset used in the study includes 727 combined heat and power (CHP) plants and 543 thermal power plants. Results show an average TE score of 0.

Driving propensity and vehicle lifetime mileage: A quantile regression approach.

This study aims to determine the relationship between motor vehicle lifetime and lifetime mileage, while considering drivers' propensity to drive and its effects on vehicle CO emissions. To do this, we analyze the relationship between lifetime mileage and vehicle lifetime for two vehicle types; a hybrid and a gasoline vehicle. We also employ a quantile regression approach to estimate the effects of drivers' propensity to drive on lifetime mileage.

Supply Constraint from Earthquakes in Japan in Input-Output Analysis.

Disasters often cause exogenous flow damage (i.e., the [hypothetical] difference in economic scale with and without a disaster in a certain period) to production ("supply constraint").

Affluent countries inflict inequitable mortality and economic loss on Asia via PM emissions.

This research sets out to quantify the mortality and economic loss in individual Asian countries caused by the PM emissions induced by the consumption of the world's five highest-consuming countries (US, China, Japan, Germany, UK). In 2010 alone, the economic impact of these five countries' consumption caused a loss of almost 45 billion US dollars due to the premature deaths of more than 1 million people in Asia, including 15 thousand children younger than 5 years old. The percentage ratio of economic loss to value-added driven by consumers via trade differed greatly among the impacted countries.

Impacts of productive efficiency improvement in the global metal industry on CO emissions.

This study focused on 14 metal sectors of the 40 countries that are the largest CO emitters and developed a new analysis framework to estimate CO reduction potentials based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol through efficiency improvement of the inefficient metal sector of these countries. The analysis framework was developed by combining a multi-regional input-output database with data envelopment analysis. We found that there were 20 inefficient countries in the basic iron and steel sector, which is the largest CO emitter among 14 metal sectors, and their efficiency improvements can contribute to reducing CO emissions by 354 Mt, accounting for 1.

Role of vehicle inspection policy in climate mitigation: The case of Japan.

In 1951, the Japanese government introduced a vehicle safety inspection system and this system has an effect of shortening the 'economic' lifetimes of automobiles and increasing CO emissions associated with vehicle life-cycle. This study develops an integrated assessment framework by combining dynamic discrete choice analysis with life-cycle environmental accounting analysis based on a dynamic stock model. From the empirical results, we found that (1) the economic lifetime of a Prius in the benchmark model is surprisingly short, 5.

Global mining risk footprint of critical metals necessary for low-carbon technologies: the case of neodymium, cobalt, and platinum in Japan.

Meeting the 2-degree global warming target requires wide adoption of low-carbon energy technologies. Many such technologies rely on the use of precious metals, however, increasing the dependence of national economies on these resources. Among such metals, those with supply security concerns are referred to as critical metals.

MaTrace: tracing the fate of materials over time and across products in open-loop recycling.

Even for metals, open-loop recycling is more common than closed-loop recycling due, among other factors, to the degradation of quality in the end-of-life (EoL) phase. Open-loop recycling is subject to loss of functionality of original materials, dissipation in forms that are difficult to recover, and recovered metals might need dilution with primary metals to meet quality requirements. Sustainable management of metal resources calls for the minimization of these losses.

Changes in the carbon footprint of Japanese households in an aging society.

As the aging and low birthrate trends continue in Japan, and as changes in the working population and consumption patterns occur, new factors are expected to have an impact on consumption-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We present the impacts of changes in the composition of Japanese households on GHG emission structures using current (2005) consumption-based accounting on the commodity sectors that are expected to require priority efforts for reducing emissions in 2035. This is done using the Global Link Input-Output model (GLIO) and domestic household consumption data and assuming that recent detailed consumption expenditures based on the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) will continue into the future.

Global flows of critical metals necessary for low-carbon technologies: the case of neodymium, cobalt, and platinum.

This study, encompassing 231 countries and regions, quantifies the global transfer of three critical metals (neodymium, cobalt, and platinum) considered vital for low-carbon technologies by means of material flow analysis (MFA), using trade data (BACI) and the metal contents of trade commodities, resolving the optimization problem to ensure the material balance of the metals within each country and region. The study shows that in 2005 international trade led to global flows of 18.6 kt of neodymium, 154 kt of cobalt, and 402 t of platinum and identifies the main commodities and top 50 bilateral trade links embodying these metals.

Estimates of embodied global energy and air-emission intensities of Japanese products for building a Japanese input-output life cycle assessment database with a global system boundary.

To build a life cycle assessment (LCA) database of Japanese products embracing their global supply chains in a manner requiring lower time and labor burdens, this study estimates the intensity of embodied global environmental burden for commodities produced in Japan. The intensity of embodied global environmental burden is a measure of the environmental burden generated globally by unit production of the commodity and can be used as life cycle inventory data in LCA. The calculation employs an input-output LCA method with a global link input-output model that defines a global system boundary grounded in a simplified multiregional input-output framework.

Characterization of economic requirements for a "carbon-debt-free country".

In recent years, greenhouse gas emission controls that incorporate the supply chains of products and services, thereby emphasizing the role of consumers rather than producers, have been drawing increasing attention. A country's consumption-based emissions, including those due to global supply chains, reflect the total emissions on which the national economy relies. To design effective emissions control strategies there is therefore an urgent need for countries to elucidate the structural relationship between their domestic economy and emissions occurring through global supply chains.

Role of motor vehicle lifetime extension in climate change policy.

Vehicle replacement schemes such as the "cash for clunkers" program in the U.S. and the "scrappage scheme" in the UK have featured prominently in the economic stimulation packages initiated by many governments to cope with the global economic crisis.

Material and energy dependence of services and its implications for climate change.

As the services industry has grown and diversified, there has been a rapid rise in the share of energy and material costs in provision of services. As a result, services, which have traditionally been considered immaterial by their nature, are now absorbing substantial amounts of energy and material goods. By decomposing the CO2 emissions embodied in material goods and services, this study quantitatively analyzes the implications of energy and materials consumption in services for the change in indirect CO2 emissions by household consumers in Japan.

How has dematerialization contributed to reducing oil price pressure?: a qualitative input-output analysis for the Japanese economy during 1990-2000.

The evolution of crude oil use structure and its impacts on commodity prices are examined for Japanese economy between 1990 and 2000. We found that the out-degree of the production network, indicating the extent of the pressure on prices of downstream industries in response to higher crude oil prices, decreased in several sectors between 1990 and 2000. The results by sector showed that the decrease was greatest in the chemical product- and iron and steel manufacturing sectors, which both indirectly use crude oil.

Simple indicator to identify the environmental soundness of growth of consumption and technology: "eco-velocity of consumption".

Today's material welfare has been achieved at the expense of consumption of finite resources and generation of environmental burdens. Over the past few decades the volume of global consumption has grown dramatically, while at the same time technological advances have enabled products with greater efficiencies. These two directions of change, consumption growth and technological advance, are the foci of the present paper.