Honda has failed to make progress on its two key climate change-related criteria in the last year, according to the company’s latest environmental report (available in Japanese only so far).
In the report, Honda says that it has reduced fleet average CO2 emissions per km by 6% since 2001, against a target of 10% by 2010. This is the same reduction reported in 2007 and therefore suggests that Honda has not made any progress in reducing fleet average CO2 emissions at all in the last year.
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In terms of CO2 emissions from vehicle manufacturing activities, Honda was closer to achieving its 2010 target last year than it is in 2008. Honda is aiming to cut CO2 emissions from manufacture by 10% (per unit of production) between 2001 and 2010. In 2007 emissions per unit of production were down 9.5% compared to 2001. In 2008 the figure was 7.7%.
Honda spokesman Chris Rogers said the reason for the higher emissions is the growth of production in emerging markets. Honda reports CO2 emissions from manufacturing on a ‘per unit of production’ basis, as it is an expanding company, and on an overall basis CO2 emissions are rising. But most of the company’s production growth in 2008 was in emerging markets such as China, where production is less energy efficient than in Japan, for example. This means that average CO2 emissions per vehicle produced have also risen.
Rogers pointed to new plants in Japan that are being built to show world class standards in energy efficiency. These standards will eventually also be rolled out to existing plants, he said.
Susan Brown
