Transparency-related cooperation with developing countries is essential for promoting the effectiveness implementation of the Paris Agreement. However, little study has been done to extract lessons learned from the experiences of developed countries under the stringent reporting requirements of the Kyoto Protocol and examine their applicability in developing countries. This paper made a comparative analysis about the institutional designs for national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories in Japan as well as Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand. The case of Japan finds that the quantitative commitment for emission reductions has served as a strong driver for the continuous quality improvement of GHG inventories, and this improvement has been made possible with endogenous research contributions. The cases of the three countries in Southeast Asia, on the other hand, identify variations in the way of engaging national experts, which partly originates from the differences in the endogenous research base. This study also indicates that none of these three countries has established any systematic channel to incorporate the latest research findings into GHG inventory preparation. This paper extended discussions about the implications of these findings for cooperation with developing countries for transparency-related capacity development.

This study aims to analyze the externalities of community-based power plants, using questionnaire survey data collected from the residents of Konan and Moriyama cities. We examined the impact of the residents’ perceptions and cognition of community-based power plants, and their conversations with others, on their power saving behavior at home and on their recommendations to other residents on power saving. Additionally, we conducted a comparative analysis of the impact of their perceptions and conversations with others, on solar power and “green curtains” in the two cities. Results revealed that only in Konan city, the residents’ perceptions and cognition of community-based power plants influenced the promotion of power saving behavior at home. Moreover, conversations with others about community-based power plants influenced their recommendations to other residents on power saving. In addition, in both cities, conversations about solar power influenced their recommendations to other residents on power saving. Conversations about “green curtains” also influenced power saving behavior at home and their recommendations to other residents on power saving. Furthermore, in both cities, conversations about “green curtains” were found to have a greater impact on their recommendations to other residents on power saving than conversations about community-based power plants.

Methane is one of the major global warming gases and waste treatment is a major source of methane emission in Japan. In this study, we examined the potentials and costs to abate methane emission from waste treatment in Japan. We focused on the treatment of municipal solid wastes, industrial wastes, human wastes, organic sewage sludge, and livestock wastes. We employed detailed data collected in 2015 to account for administrative, institutional, and technological conditions of waste treatment in Japan, particularly small scales of facilities that potentially undermine the scale economy of waste treatment. The results showed that 63–92 thousand tons of methane (160–230 million tons of CO₂ equivalent) could be abated annually with the marginal abatement costs (MAC) less than the levels considered socially acceptable in global carbon price discussions. Also, after subtracting the current subsidies for waste treatment, the private MAC for waste treatment authorities became negative up to approximately 85 thousand tons of methane (200 million tons of CO₂ equivalent). Agglomeration of waste treatment further increased the abatement potential under socially acceptable MAC. The abatement measures considered in this paper could contribute to the governmental goal that aims to abate methane emission by 176 thousand tons.

As expectations for renewable energy (RE) as a mainstream energy source have been increasing, some multinational corporations have declared their commitment to using electricity generated from 100％ renewable resources. Although discussions over the pathway to 100％ RE are gaining momentum, few universities or businesses in Japan have taken action toward implementing 100％ RE. After conducting preliminary research and internal discussions on its feasibility for three years, Chiba University of Commerce (CUC) officially started a project in 2017 to become a 100％ RE university, aiming to produce more power than it consumes, and achieved this goal in 2019. Selecting which methods to use to reduce energy consumption and generate power required decision-making to solve the dilemma of how to balance financial performance and meeting the 100％ RE goal. Based on their direct involvement in the project, the authors describe the CUC case study to provide an example of a 100％ RE project for other universities and businesses who wish to implement something similar.