Japan to Study Carbon Trading for Companies - Report
Date: 06-Aug-07
Country: JAPAN
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has proposed halving global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 but Japan is struggling to meet its own target of cutting emissions by 6 percent by 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol's first phase ends.
The Environment Ministry is expected to propose starting a domestic transfer system for greenhouse gas emissions credits sometime this month, arguing that Japan should follow a growing global trend, Yomiuri quoted sources as saying.
The European Union adopted such a system in 2005 and late last month, the Australian Climate Exchange launched a new climate trading platform.
Officials at the Environment Ministry were not available for comment.
Japan's most powerful business lobby, the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) has strongly opposed introducing a carbon trading system, saying that it would be impossible to fairly allocate the credits.
Japanese business groups have dragged their feet on other energy proposals, such as a carbon tax, out of concern for their economic impact.
But Japan's emissions were 14 percent above its Kyoto goal as of March 2006.