Japan is set to complete a deal this week to buy emissions rights from Ukraine, marking its first deal via a government-to-government trading scheme under the Kyoto Protocol, a Japanese government source familiar with the talks said on Monday, according to Reuters.
Ukraine will deliver 30 million tonnes of so-called Assigned Amount Units (AAUs), half of which will be delivered in the Japanese fiscal year that ends this month and the other half in the next fiscal year, the source said.
Japan`s greenhouse gas emissions rose to a record 1.37 billion tonnes in the year to March 2008, putting it at risk of failing its Kyoto target to cut emissions by 6 percent from the 1990 level of 1.26 billion tonnes in carbon dioxide equivalent.
Over the past two years, Japan has talked with about 10 eastern and central European countries, including the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, to help it meet its greenhouse gas emissions target under Kyoto.
Japan hopes to complete another AAU deal with a different eastern European country, estimated to be worth tens of millions of tonnes in April, the source added.
The source declined to comment further about the second AAU deal.
A second government source said talks with Poland and Hungary had been delayed.
Japan has pledged to buy 100 million tonnes in carbon offsets from abroad during the 2008-2012 Kyoto period to supplement the country`s voluntary industry-led plans to improve energy efficiency and reduce fossil fuel use.
In the two years through March 2008, Japan has bought the equivalent of 23.1 million tonnes from abroad, all of which are CERs, or offsets generated by clean energy projects in developing countries under Kyoto`s Clean Development Mechanism scheme.
