Japan plans carbon offset scheme with India

TOKYO: Japan is set to offer India a carbon offset scheme that would see Tokyo’s environmental technology used by the rising Asian giant to help reduce its emissions, a report said.
The scheme would see Japanese firms earn carbon credits in return for helping developing countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, the Nikkei newspaper said in its Monday evening edition, adding India was a likely early partner.
The joint crediting mechanism (JCM) would encourage Japanese firms to participate by allowing them to promote technologies such as energy-efficient furnaces and air-conditioning systems, in developing countries with huge market potential such as India.
The Nikkei report comes as Japan struggles to further cut its greenhouse gas emissions, with businesses claiming many factories, vehicles and household appliances are already fitted with energy-efficient technologies.
It also comes as the latest energy white paper showed Japan is increasingly dependent on imported fossil fuels for power generation, with the public still unwilling to allow nuclear reactors to be switched back after the huge 2011 quake-tsunami disaster that crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Under the mooted joint crediting mechanism (JCM), participating firms would be allowed to count the carbon credits as reductions in their own greenhouse gas emissions or could sell them to the government, the Nikkei said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, who will visit Tokyo next month, will agree to speed up talks on the matter, the newspaper reported.
Japan has already signed JCM agreements with 11 developing countries, including Indonesia, Mongolia and Kenya.

Bus plunge kills 13

A bus has fallen into a mountain gorge in northern India, killing 13 people and injuring dozens more.
Police officer Sandeep Negi says the bus went off a road at a turn and plunged into a deep gorge Monday night. The accident occurred while the bus was returning from the Himalayan foothills to the town of Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh state after visiting the lake resort town of Renuka ji in Himachal Pradesh.
Negi says 13 of the 61 Indian tourists on board were killed, while another 43 were injured, including some in critical condition.
Rescuers used a crane to lift the vehicle from the gorge. Authorities were investigating the cause of the accident.
India has the world’s deadliest roads, with more than 110,000 people killed annually.