Japan eyes first carbon market
Japan is considering setting up its first market to trade in carbon dioxide emissions in a bid to speed up its compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, officials said yesterday.
The Kyoto treaty, aimed at curbing global warming, allows countries and companies to buy credits from those with a surplus to meet their requirements to reduce emissions.
A group led by the state-run Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking Co has received the government go-ahead for emissions trading but is still discussing details, company officials said.
"We hope to establish a project such as an emissions-right exchange in the later half of the year," said an official with the state-run bank.
"We still need further analysis on issues such as government involvement and assessment of potential participants," she said on condition of anonymity.
She said the market would reduce Japan's dependence on the European Union's Emissions Trading System, which has become the world's major exchange for carbon emissions.
"With the project, we hope to stimulate emission rights trading in Japan," she said.
Japan, which hosted the 1997 meeting that drafted the landmark Kyoto pact, is obligated to reduce its average annual emission volume of greenhouse gases for 2008 to 2012 by 6 percent compared with 1990 levels.
But Japan's emissions rose 8 percent in 2005 as its economy expands from a slump.
The Japanese exchange would welcome foreign companies eager to buy their emissions allowances, the Nikkei business daily said.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, countries can obtain credits by reducing emissions in nations that are not part of the deal.
Japan acquired nearly 30 percent of the world's carbon dioxide credits between January 2005 and September 2006, more than any other country, the Nikkei said.
AFP
(China Daily 02/28/2007 page16)
