Hiroshima City Starts Cash Payment Program for CO2 Reduction at Home

Copyright Hiroshima city

In 2010, a program to provide cash and shopping tickets (HOPES tickets) in exchange for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) by saving energy at home started as community-based CO2 emissions trading scheme in Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture. Citizens can use the HOPES tickets at participating stores in the city to receive discounts on goods, or exchange it for goods.

The target for FY 2010 is based on two months consumption of electricity and city gas in November and December, compared with the same months of 2009. Among about 1,000 households that have registered in advance to participate, the city distributes two HOPES tickets to those households that reported their usage amount to the city, regardless of whether the usage amount had actually decreased. A one-kilowatt reduction earns 5 yen (about US$ 0.6). Cash payment depends on the actual reduced amount when the total equivalent is over 200 yen (about US$ 2.5), while one HOPES ticket is provided when the amount is under 200 yen.

The reduced amount of CO2 in households can be purchased by local businesses, which can be subtracted from their own emissions.

Any citizen aged 20 and over, who has been living in the same house in Hiroshima City for more than one year, can participate in this program. The city is going to expand the scale of this program, which is scheduled to be continued until 2012.

Tokyo Enacts Japan's First Ordinance for Mandatory CO2 Cuts (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/027136.html

Posted: 2011/04/03 06:00:15 AM