The Agency for Natural Resources and Energy organized the issues on e-methane and CO2 emissions for discussion on the rules for calculation and accounting
At the panel of experts held on March 13th, the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) organized the issue of the treatment of CO2 emissions in methanation, which produces e-methane from hydrogen and recovered CO2. In the case of importing e-methane produced using low-cost renewable energy from overseas into Japan, there is no established international method for accounting CO2 emissions. The ANRE will separate the issues into intergovernmental agreements and corporate-level activities, and indicate the direction of calculation and recording.
On the same day, March 13th, it was presented to the Working Group for the study of the Gas Business System under the Advisory Committee for Energy & Resource Policy.
While synthetic methane uses CO2 during production, it emits CO2 during combustion. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the treatment in the production and the use of synthetic methane should comply with domestic and international regulations. The point of the issue is the case of importing synthetic methane produced overseas, and using it in Japan. This has implications for the national inventory and NDC(Nationally Determined Contributions) of greenhouse gas.
The ANRE also organized the issues at the corporate activity-level. It set a challenge to coordinate with domestic systems such as “emissions trading” and “J-Credit” in the publication system and GX(Green Transformation) league based on the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures.