Trading house Sumitomo Corp and two other Japanese firms plan to
earn greenhouse-gas emissions rights by reducing the level of
global-warming gases in China, a press report said yesterday.
They will take advantage of an international arrangement under
the Kyoto Protocol, a UN pact on global warming, that accords
emissions rights to countries and firms in return for their help
in reducing greenhouse gases in developing countries. The three
firms plan to collect methane gas generated at Chinese coal
mines and use it to produce electricity, the Nihon Keizai
Shimbun said. Sumitomo will work on the project with Chugoku
Electric Power Co and Niigata Power Systems Co, the business
daily said. They are expected to become the first Japanese
companies to launch a program in China under the arrangement,
known as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the report said.
More Japanese firms are likely to follow in their footsteps and
pursue similar projects in China, which produces the largest
amount of global warming gases aft