Japanese Power Companies Purchase Carbon Credits from China

Major Japanese power companies have been making contracts one after the other to purchase carbon credits from China through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a system included in the Kyoto Mechanism. The CDM allows developing countries, which are not obliged to cut carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, to transfer credits generated by greenhouse gas emission reduction projects implemented in their countries to participants of the projects.

On June 22, 2006, Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced that it had purchased carbon credits for a total 650,000 tons to be generated over seven years by a wind power project operating with an output of 30,000 kW in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China. The company also announced on June 29 that it purchased further carbon credits for a total of 840,000 tons over six years from a hydropower project with an output of 80,000 kW in Guizhou Province.

Acquisitions of carbon credits by other power companies followed in 2006. Chubu Electric Power Co. announced on June 19 that it had entered into a contract to purchase carbon dioxide credits for 2 million tons over a period until 2012 through a chlorofluorocarbon collection project in Zhejiang Province, China. Kansai Electric Power Co. also announced on July 11 that it had gained official approval from the Japanese government for purchasing carbon credits from two projects in China over a period until 2012. These projects are to reduce CO2 emissions by 560,000 tons by building hydroelectricity power plants in Gansu Province.

In the Kyoto Protocol Target Achievement Plan adopted in April 2005, the Japanese government has declared its intention to promote and utilize the CDM system.

http://www.chuden.co.jp/english/corporate/press2006/0619_2.html

Posted: 2006/09/06 12:34:44 PM
Japanese version