The Japan Bank for International Cooperation has set aside $4 billion to invest in renewable energy and carbon projects in the two years through March 2013 to help Japan offset its emissions, an official said.
The credits from the projects will be generated after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires, Executive Director Fumio Hoshi said in an interview after attending the Carbon Forum Asia 2010 in Singapore today.
The amount is part of Japan’s $15 billion commitment on projects that generate carbon credit, he said. Japan, the world’s fifth-biggest carbon dioxide emitter in 2008, wants to use offsetting to help it cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. International talks in Tianjin, China, to reach an agreement to combat climate change ended this month with little progress made.
“We will fund projects both on a bilateral level and multilateral basis through loans and investments in environment funds,” Hoshi said. The bank will also offer guarantees on behalf of borrowers and invest in clean-energy funds to meet its commitment, he said.
Japan has started talks with Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Thailand and the Philippines on the bilateral plan, Noriaki Ozawa, director of the ministry’s Kyoto mechanism promotion office, told reporters in Tokyo on Oct. 20. Japan wants them to “co-exist” with the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism, which doesn’t include nuclear power and carbon capture and storage technologies, he said.
The selected projects will be developed in Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand, Maldives and China, according to a statement by Japan’s trade ministry.
