Marubeni Corp., the only Japanese trading house that's a member of the European Climate Exchange, is targeting a 43 percent increase in carbon-credit sales as the country approaches a 2012 deadline to reduce emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.
Sales to Japanese utilities and other local polluters may reach 100 million tons by the end of 2012, from the current 70 million tons, said Yutaka Hayashi, an emissions-credit trader with Japan's fifth-largest trading house. The target volume is worth 2.1 billion euro ($3.3 billion), based on the latest price on the European Climate Exchange in London.
The World Bank forecasts Japan's overall demand for carbon credits will total 450 to 600 million tons over the next five years, according to the lender's latest carbon-market report. That compares with estimated total demand in the European Union of 1.94 billion tons in the same period.