<article><p class="lead">Japan's final energy consumption in the April 2019-March 2020 fiscal year continued to fall, pressured by weaker demand from all sectors including industry, commercial, transportation and household. </p><p>Its 2019-20 final energy use totalled around 335mn kilolitres (kl), or 2.1bn bl of oil equivalent (boe), down by 2pc from a year earlier, according to a preliminary data released yesterday by the trade and industry ministry (Meti). This marked the second consecutive year of decline. </p><p>Coal consumption fell by 2pc on year to 213mn boe in 2019-20, while oil use declined by 2.5pc to 1bn boe. Requirements for natural gas and city gas dropped by 0.4pc to 184mn boe. Power demand fell by 1.9pc to 542mn boe, while renewable energy use declined by 6pc to 1.9mn boe. </p><p>Warmer-than-usual winter weather hit demand from the country's household sector, while industry activity, especially in the steel and petrochemical sectors, slowed, Meti said. </p><p>Japan's primary energy supply fell by 3.1pc on the year to 3.1bn boe in 2019-20. Fossil fuel supplies declined for a sixth straight year, while non-fossil fuel supplies, including renewable and nuclear energy, increased for a seventh consecutive year. The share of fossil fuel declined to 85pc, the lowest level since 2011-12, just after the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.</p><p>Power output totalled 1bn MWh in 2019-20, down by 2.2pc from a year earlier. But the share of non-fossil energy sources increased to 24.2pc, up by 1.2 percentage points on the year. </p><p>Japan's energy-derived CO2 emissions fell by 3.4pc from a year earlier to 1.03bn t in 2019-20, posting the sixth year-on-year decline. The 2019-20 emissions represented a 16.7pc fall compared with 2013-14. </p><p>The power sector's CO2 emissions reached 0.474 kg/kWh in 2019-20, down by 2.6pc from a year earlier and 18pc lower from 2013-14 because of rising use of renewable and nuclear power sources.</p><p class="bylines">By Motoko Hasegawa</p></article>
