"Climate Point System" Shelved

The implementation of a "climate point system," proposed by Japan's Ministry of the Environment (MOE) in the summer of 2002, was shelved due to opposition raised by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) during budget deliberations. MOE had planned to implement this initiative in the fiscal year of 2003. The system is a scheme designed to provide a subsidy of 50 yen (about 40 cents U.S.) per "climate point" (equivalent to a reduction of one kilogram of greenhouse gas emissions) to non-governmental organizations or public-service corporations in order to promote greenhouse gas reduction initiatives conducted by Regional Councils of Measures to Cope with Global Warming.

The MOF stated its reasons for rejection as follows:
"The ministry gives credit to the approach aimed at assessing and appraising the results of emissions reductions through measurements as points. However, we have concern over the method of simply granting a fixed rate per point. Without objective standards or criteria that can be accepted unanimously, we believe a fair judgment regarding the amount of subsidy and selection of projects is difficult."

Acknowledging the points raised by the MOF, the MOE revised the proposal, but failed to finalize it in time to meet the deadline for budget deliberations, so the proposal was shelved. In the initial plan, it was up to the recipients to decide on the details of projects, and also, with the maximum subsidy fixed at 400,000 points, or 20million yen (about U.S.$170,000) per grant, the system was targeted at a limited number of NGOs and public-service corporations that can accomplish relatively large-scale emissions reduction results. For implementation of the "climate point system," further consideration is needed, with an evaluation method that can reflect small-scale efforts and more explicit criteria for judging which projects will be given grants.


- Environment Ministry to Subsidize Reduction of Greenhouse Gases (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/126-j

Posted: 2003/02/13 10:07:13 AM
Japanese version