Alternative building emission-reduction measure: outcomes from the Tokyo Cap-and-Trade Program

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been actively promoting comprehensive policy measures to reduce carbon emissions from non-residential buildings. Among them, the Tokyo Cap-and-Trade Program (TCTP), implemented since 2010, is an important measure to accelerate the building sector's emission reduction to achieve Tokyo's greenhouse gas target, 25% reduction by 2020 from a year 2000 baseline level. Under TCTP, all large commercial and industrial facilities are required to achieve the 25% reduction in two compliance periods (FY2010-14 and FY2015-19). An emission-trading scheme was established that allows building owners to purchase carbon credits to compensate for shortfalls and sell excess reductions over the obligations. This paper assesses the effectiveness of TCTP based on extensive data obtained from 1300 facilities covered by the programme and surveys among facility owners from the first compliance phase. Data indicate that TCTP has been working effectively to reduce energy consumption in participating facilities to meet the ambitious emission reduction goals, to introduce new technologies, and to raise awareness and drive behavioural changes for energy demand reduction. TCTP is examined as an alternative policy instrument to building energy codes in a portfolio of sustainable building policies, highlighting its unique capacity for driving deeper and longer-term improvements for more ambitious mitigation targets.