Japan Ups CO2 Offset Buying As Nuclear Power Slows

Japan is stepping up efforts to meet its Kyoto Protocol targets by buying more greenhouse gas emissions offsets from abroad than previously planned as its own emissions rise and nuclear power production dwindles.

Japan has become a major emissions credit buyer, using the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) as its agent. Having already bought 23 million in the past two years, the government says it will buy at least 77 million more tonnes of carbon offset credits by 2012.
In addition, electric power firms, such as Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), will have to invest in more clean energy projects abroad to make up for carbon emitted from their own plants, because emission-free nuclear power generation is lower than expected, analysts said on Monday.

TEPCO’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, the world’s biggest nuclear power station, has been shut since July after being damaged by an earthquake, forcing TEPCO to work its thermal plants harder and to buy electricity from other firms.

“Apart from the government’s planned purchase of offset credits, the private sector will have to buy double or more than that,” said Yoichi Kaya, director-general of Research Institute of Innovative Technology for Earth.

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