On August 4th 2022, the Research Institute for Environmental Economics and Management (RIEEM) hosted an international workshop titled “EU-Japan Policy Workshop: Updates on Carbon Offset”. Emissions from the airline sector represent a relatively large share of global emissions, and hence, airline companies have been looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. This workshop explored carbon offset, and offered a forum of discussion among experts with various backgrounds. It gathered academic experts from both Japan and Germany, as well as officials from the Ministry of Environment of Japan and Japan Airlines (JAL). Participants from the University of Kassel, Germany had the opportunity to visit Waseda University in person, a first time for many of them.
Participants were first welcomed by Prof. Toshi H. Arimura, head of the RIEEM, who gave them an overview of carbon
pricing policy in Japan. Prof. Arimura especially emphasized the need for further carbon pricing development in the
country, as Japan does not currently have a national cap and trade scheme or a high level of carbon tax.
His presentation was followed by Mr. Yasuo Yamamoto, from the Market Mechanism Division of the Ministry of Environment.
Mr. Yamamoto introduced participants to the recent development in the J-credit system, a credit trading scheme unique to
Japan. It allows firms that make efforts to reduce their emission to receive credits, which can be later sold to other
companies wishing to offset their emissions. The J-credit system has been gaining momentum in recent years, due to its
high credit price.
Then, Mr. Hideki Ochiai, Vice President of ESG Promotion in JAL, took the floor. He explained JAL’s strategy to reaching
net zero emission by 2050, through fuel efficiency improvement or sustainable aviation fuel. Recently, the company has
started a carbon offset program, offering customers a method to calculate and offset their carbon footprint.
At this point, the workshop turned to the European Union and to the online participants. Prof Joachim Schleich, gave participants an overview of the status of climate policies in the European Union, focusing on the recent developments of the Fit for 55 package. Then, Prof. Heike Wetzel provided an overview of the German Energy markets, with a special emphasis on the role and evolution of the transportation sector in the German emissions. Finally, Prof Andreas Zeigler discussed voluntary carbon offsetting, and the attitudes of customers towards carbon offsetting.
Finally, Prof. Miwa Nakai, from Fukui Prefectural University and alumni of RIEEM, discussed future collaboration between Waseda University and the University of Kassel in the DAAD-JSPS project. In future projects, researchers would like to focus on voluntary carbon offsetting and customer preference evaluation. Thus, Prof. Nakai suggested several research designs, in the hope of a future collaboration with JAL. Then, the workshop concluded with a lively discussion between participants and experts, on sustainable aviation fuel, barriers to voluntary carbon offsets and future research prospects.
