Japanese and South Korean companies, adopting arguments that helped block carbon trading in the U.S., are opposing government plans to set up emissions markets worth a potential $212 billion by 2020.
The Federation of Korean Industries said Jan. 11 that starting emissions trading in 2013 would add to the cost of doing business and put the country at a disadvantage unless Japan and China do the same. Keidanren, Japan's largest business lobby, said 61 of 64 companies that responded to a survey in September opposed introducing carbon trading.
Japan and South Korea, Asia's third- and-fourth-biggest polluters, would be critical to the United Nations plan to make carbon trading a "pillar" of the global effort to slow climate change. Concerns about costs and competition derailed national carbon markets in the U.S. and Australia and raised doubts about so-called cap and trade catching on outside Europe.