Govt to host emissions trading conference

The Yomiuri Shimbun

7:46 JST, February 3, 2022

The government will host an online international conference in February and March aimed at promoting the international trading of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Some 50-100 countries are expected to participate.

In November, the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) agreed a set of implementation guidelines for emissions trading. Japan has been working on its own trading system, the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), which it hopes will become an international standard.

Under the current emissions trading system, when an industrialized country provides a developing country with technology or funds to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a portion of that reduction can be counted toward the industrialized country’s own emissions.

Since 2013, Japan has signed JCM agreements with 17 countries in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and other regions. Utilizing the technological capabilities of Japanese companies, Japan has implemented more than 200 projects in these countries to support the introduction of renewable energy power generation and energy-saving equipment.

Participating countries are presently working toward implementing the guidelines agreed at COP26, which was held in Britain. Japan’s online convocation — to run on Feb. 17 and March 7 — is the first large-scale international conference to follow COP26. It will convene with cooperation from Britain and Egypt, the latter of which will preside over COP27 later this year. The conference is expected to attract about 1,000 participants from various countries on both days.

During the meetings, Japan will introduce the JCM mechanism, give examples of its use, and lay out the government’s policy on sharing know-how with interested countries. Developing countries will have the opportunity to present the case for their respective support needs and Japan will call on developing countries to become JCM partners.

　“The widespread adoption of the JCM method will contribute toward global decarbonization,” a senior official of the Environment Ministry said. “It will also lead to the development of a market in which Japanese companies with high-quality technologies and products can easily enter the environmental infrastructure field.”