Ukraine to be 1st gov't to sell emission rights to Japan+

TOKYO, March 19 Kyodo - Ukraine will be the first foreign government to sell greenhouse gas emission
rights to Japan to help Tokyo meet its reduction goal under the Kyoto Protocol,
government officials said Wednesday.

Japan will acquire 30 million tons of emission rights from the Ukrainian
government under a contract on so-called Assigned Amount Units, signed
Wednesday in Kiev between the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development
Organization, a Japanese government entity, and the National Environmental
Investment Agency of Ukraine.
The Kyoto pact requires Japan to cut emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels
during the period between 2008 and 2012.
Despite all efforts, Japan is likely to fall short of its Kyoto Protocol
commitment by at least 1.6 percent or about 100 million tons of carbon dioxide
equivalents.
To offset this shortfall, Japan has been negotiating also with other countries
having excess emission rights, including Hungary, the Czech Republic and
Poland, to buy them.
Initially, Hungary was expected to be the first foreign government to sell
emission rights to Japan as the two signed a memorandum of understanding on
AAUs in December 2007, prior to the one with Ukraine last summer.
But differences have remained between Japan and Hungary over the specifics of
their emission rights transfer, including the purchase price and the volume,
the officials said.
As for the latest deal with Ukraine, the officials refused to say how much the
government will pay to acquire the rights, noting that Tokyo's negotiations
with other countries could be affected if the price is disclosed.
Recently, the world's benchmark trading price is about 12 euros per ton of
carbon dioxide.
Japan's payment to Ukraine will be used to finance the European country's
domestic measures to combat global warming, such as those related to energy
conservation and renewable energy, the officials said.
==Kyodo