Japan to Establish Greenhouse Gas Information Center; Climate Change Measure Announced at COP29

By Masahiro Amazawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

14:07 JST, November 19, 2024

BAKU — The National Institute for Environmental Studies plans to establish a new information center about the gases that are a cause of global warming as soon as next fiscal year.

The outline of the center, tentatively named the Japan Greenhouse Gas Center (GHG Center), was announced on Thursday at the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 29) being held in Baku.

Greenhouse gases, which include carbon dioxide and methane, contribute to the greenhouse effect. In Japan, the Japan Meteorological Agency, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and other entities use ground-based observation equipment, aircraft and ships to monitor greenhouse gases, but the data they glean is issued separately.

The National Institute for Environmental Studies was involved in the development of greenhouse gas observation satellites, which have been conducting observations around the globe.

The Japan GHG Center would collect all this information and make it available for use by research institutes and companies in Japan and elsewhere. The center will aim to accelerate efforts to combat climate change by making this information available for use in policy making aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, for research and for the development of private-sector services.

In last year’s COP28 meeting held in Dubai, the United States announced that it would set up a similar center. The U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center is currently being jointly operated by NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other entities.