Bilateral agreement that will help Japan earn carbon credits from India likely to be signed when Modi visits Japan next month
India and Japan may soon sign a carbon emissions reduction deal that will allow Japanese companies to earn carbon credits by helping India reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. A carbon credit a certificate representing reduction of one tonne of carbon dioxide and can be traded in the market.
The details of the deal are expected to be finalised in July when India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, will visit Japan and Shinzo Abe in Tokyo, reported a Japanese media organisation. When Down To Earth contacted the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, officials refused to comment on the matter.
Officially called Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), it is a bilateral carbon offset system that will allow Japanese companies to install high-end carbon reduction technology in India and in return get carbon credits which they can use to show reduction in their carbon footprint under the country's emissions target or sell it to the Japanese government.
If India signs the deal, it will become the largest economy so far to have signed the bilateral emissions reduction pact with Japan under its JCM. Japan has already signed bilateral agreements with 11 countries, including Costa Rica, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya and Mongolia, allowing it to outsource its carbon emissions cuts to countries where reducing greenhouse gases is cheaper.
After all 48 of its nuclear power plants shut down, following the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Japan has been heavily relying on imported fossil fuels. As a result, the island nation last year reduced its carbon emission reduction targets, saying it would release three per cent more greenhouse gases by 2020 from the 1990 levels, instead of the six per cent cut it originally pledged.
Japan’s ministry of economy, trade and industry has already conducted feasibility studies on possible JCM projects in developing countries, including India, as part of its efforts to promote the scheme, reports media.
Report : Developing dimension: state of the voluntary carbon markets 2012
Report: The efficiency of carbon offsetting through the Clean Development Mechanism
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