Reuters reports that the Nikkei business daily said that Japan's government will create a new indicator aimed at reflecting the country's progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions compared with its GDP.

Japan's greenhouse gas emissions have been declining in recent years, the Nikkei said without saying where it got its information, adding that the new measure will show the country's decarbonisation efforts from an economic growth perspective.

But an official at the Cabinet Office, which is also in charge of calculating GDP, said nothing had been decided about releasing a new indicator on a regular basis in the future, describing the Nikkei's report as inaccurate.

The Cabinet Office was only looking at ways to assess carbon neutrality-related statistics, but its research was still in the early stages while it may stretch out over multiple years, the official said.