As Japan looks for ways to improve its emissions reduction targets ahead of this year’s COP26 climate conference, one ace up the government’s sleeve may be the increasing number of carbon-reducing projects it is sponsoring abroad. Most of them will generate credits that Japan could use to offset its own emissions total.

In the past year, Japan has notably widened the flow of projects getting approved under schemes such as the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), which support efforts to lower the carbon footprints of developing economies.

Such activity has boosted the total expected reduction in greenhouse gases (GHG) that Japan can claim from JCM alone to 17.9 million tons by 2030. That’s equivalent to 1.48% of the Japan’s GHG total for FY2019 – a small, but not insignificant volume.

By 2030, Japan hopes to register enough JCM projects to cut emissions by 100 million tons of CO2 equivalent. What’s more, the credits forged through JCM carry monetary value.

Full story contains table of the selected FY2020 JCM projects.