Japan logs the first of carbon credits on new UN system
19 Nov 2007
Japan logged on to a United Nations computer system to track greenhouse-gas trading under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, less than two months before the compliance period of the treaty begins, at the beginning of next year.
The new system, known as the ''international transaction log'', became operational on 14 November, allowing Japan to receive into its registry its certified emission reduction credits, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said in an e-mail.
Switzerland and New Zealand would link with the system by year''s end, it said.
Japan on Wednesday became the first country to use the international transaction log (ITL) to take delivery of carbon offsets which it can use to help it stay within its binding greenhouse gas emissions limits under the Kyoto Protocol, the UN climate body said.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, rich countries can stay within emission caps by buying carbon offsets from developing nations, investing in emissions-cutting projects there.
Last year, Japan recorded 150 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, or some 13 per cent, above its Kyoto limit of 1.2 billion tonnes, making it a likely big buyer.
Targets are based on countries'' expected average emissions from 2008-12.
"The entry of the ITL into real-time operation sends a clear signal to the carbon market that trading can go ahead as planned," said UN climate chief Yvo de Boer.
Japan and Europe have been buying carbon offsets in return for funding clean-energy projects in developing countries under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol.
But all parties have had to wait to get their credits officially transferred to accounts while the UN developed a carbon-trading link, called the International Transaction Log (ITL), to track these deals.
This system is aimed at enabling industrialised nations to stay within their emissions obligations as laid out under the global climate agreement named after Japan''s ancient capital.
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