Japan is unlikely to legislate pledged cuts in greenhouse gas emissions before U.N.-led climate talks in Mexico this month as lawmakers are focused on the economy, but its enactment in the new year could include a new tax on initial users of fossil fuels.
Japan’s pledge to cut emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 is government policy and one of the new green measures is expected to take shape by the end of the year, government officials and law makers said on Friday.
The 2020 target, which industries say is hard to meet without carbon offsets from abroad, has a precondition that all major emitters adopt similar ambitions, as Japan is seeking a broader successor to the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol.
The first part of the Kyoto agreement ends in 2012.
A project team of Japan’s ruling Democratic Party has submitted a set of proposals for a new tax on initial users of fossil fuels, media said on Friday.
The recommendations will be taken into account when the government’s tax panel finalizes details by mid-December.
The proposed new tax on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from burning fossil fuels is aimed at funneling funds to the clean-energy sector, with additional tax payments by fuel users eventually totaling to about 250 billion yen ($3 billion) a year, the reports said.
A shortened extraordinary parliament session is set to end early next month.
But a climate bill including a call for a CO2 tax and an emissions trading system is expected to be re-submitted by the government in a regular session early next year.
Introduction of a tax on CO2 emissions is also a test of accountability by the government, which despite a ballooning fiscal debt said in June it would make the clean-energy industry as a driver for growth.
