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Author(s): David G. Victor (corresponding author) [1]; Keigo Akimoto [2]; Yoichi Kaya [3]; Mitsutsune Yamaguchi [6]; Danny Cullenward [4]; Cameron Hepburn [5] Beyond US President Donald Trump's decision in June [...]

A study is conducted to analyze lifetime carbon dioxide emissions from Japanese nuclear power plants. The study also analyzes energy scenarios in Japan.

The Japanese government has adopted economic measures to control and reduce CO2 emissions. In particular, Japan has implemented a CO2 tax and subsidies for voluntary CO2 reduction. The national cost of CO2 reduction by taxation is extremely high but without such measures, CO2 emissions from the Japanese energy sector would increase by more than 36% by the year 2005. The subsidies for voluntary reduction of CO2 emissions do not have a significant effect on the adverse impact of the CO2 tax.

There has been much research done on pricing theories for electric power utilities study. One of the well-known methodologies for pricing is Time Of Use Pricing(TOUP). Current investigations on this pricing theory are based on the implicit assumption that the customers have no option but to purchase electricity from the utility company. However, new power generation techniques are beginning to reveal the invalidity of this assumption. Many customers are now able to use their own Non-Commercial Power plants (NCP). NCP give customers the alternative to either purchase electricity from the utility company or to generate it by themselves. This alternative can lead them to enter into price negotiations with the utility company, or put political pressure upon the pricing process. This paper employs the game theory approach for evaluating the impact of the introduction of customer owned NCP upon the pricing process when TOUP is used. We have derived various interesting results from this analysis some of which are: the conflict between NCP customers and the supplier forces the supplier reduce the price for NCP customers, also perception of the situation in which they are involved plays an important role in this conflict. The game model analysis presented in this paper provides us detailed quantitative information on electricity prices and on the ways of using NCP.

Current emission scenarios that allow keeping the global temperature increase below 2 °C or even 1.5 °C—as foreseen by the Paris Agreement—are based on very optimistic assumptions, including enormous volumes of carbon dioxide removal (CDR). A closer look at the globally most important emission sectors—power, transport and industry—shows manifold barriers for very ambitious mitigation. A new policy guideline called "Net Zero CO2 Emissions without relying on massive CDR" and promotion of technological research, in addition to economic incentives and other policy measures, would help to overcome the often simplistic demands for positive modelling results and refocus climate policy on tackling the enormous barriers in key emitting sectors. Such an approach is more aligned with the Paris Agreement's bottom-up logic and therefore more appropriate to make the transformational project of global decarbonization a success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the regional energy saving potential by cascade use of waste heat in energy intensive industries, taking into account the actual local industrial structure in Japan. Energy flow in the industrial combinat composed of iron & steel, cement, paper & pulp and ethylene was optimized to minimize the oil consumption of steam boilers. The simulation results reveals that the local industrial structure highly influences on the energy saving potential by heat cascading. The industrial structure optimizing energy consumption was determined in consideration of spatial constraints of manufacturing plants or heat transmission loss between different plants. More than 90% reduction in oil consumption was expected by interconnection of waste heat supply and energy demand mainly between ethylene and paper & pulp industries. Keywords: energy system, energy saving potential, heat cascading, waste heat, energy intensive industry, industrial combinat, oil consumption, spatial constraint, heat transmission loss