Impacts of the Progress of Ubiquitous Technologies on Energy Consumption in Japan

Abstract

We made a mathematical model of the Japanese economy using a macro-economic modeling framework called a Computable General Equilibrium model. We used the model to estimate the impacts of the progress of ubiquitous technologies on the CO₂ emissions in Japan. We made 4 scenarios on the ubiquitous society in Japan in 2010. The 4 scenarios correspond to 4 different levels of the progress of ubiquitous society. In each scenario, we assumed electricity consumption by electronics products, effects of ubiquitous applications on energy use, and the market size of ubiquitous application services. The results indicate that advanced ubiquitous technologies would potentially reduce the CO₂ emissions of the Japanese economy by 2.8%.