3/19/2008

Government to purchase carbon quotas from Poland

The Japanese and Polish governments have reached a basic agreement under which the Japan will purchase a portion of Poland's greenhouse gas emission quotas, it was learned Monday.

It will be the Japanese government's second agreement on emissions trading following an agreement Tokyo signed with Budapest last year to purchase a portion of Hungary's emission quotas.

The emissions trading will be done through a method called the Green Investment Scheme, which the country that sold the emission quotas is obligated to use the profit only for environmental protection measures.

Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita and his Polish counterpart, Maciej Nowicki, concluded the agreement at the three-day meeting of the Group of 20 nations held in Chiba from Friday through Sunday, at which ministers of the world's top greenhouse gas emitters discussed issues including climate change, clean energy and sustainable development.

The two governments are scheduled to exchange an official document on emissions trading, probably sometime this week. The volume of transactions will be discussed later, but Nowicki said the Polish government may sell several million tons worth of carbon credits.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change requires Japan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent from the 1990 levels during the period between 2008 and 2012.

Source:http: yomiuri.co.jp



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