Japanese firms in carbon reduction rush

Japanese businesses are on an investment spree of greenhouse-gas reduction projects abroad, especially in Asia, as the nation is in hot water over its target for slashing emissions of such gases under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
The “credits” these firms earn in return for gas-reduction investments in developing countries can be counted as cuts for
their own emissions – and in turn, for Japan – under a system called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), one of the three so-called Kyoto mechanisms introduced under the protocol to help industrialized countries meet their reduction targets. Developing nations that take part can receive technology transfers from their industrialized partners.
The global emissions-trading market is expected to top $222 billion by 2010 and eventually reach $854 billion. The 25-nation European Union established the world’s first multilateral emissions-trading market in January last year.

atimes