Cash for old smoke

Despite the lack of a mandatory, standardised scheme for trading carbon emissions in Asia, interest is growing fast in earning emission-reduction credits in the region. And several trading initiatives are under way, notably in Japan, finds Joe Marsh

Given that Japan is the biggest economy in the world to have signed the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, it is hardly surprising that it is perhaps the most active country in Asia in terms of developing trading initiatives to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Especially since Japan's emission levels have in fact risen since it signed the treaty.

But the rest of the region is of importance too. An emissions-trading exchange is being developed in Singapore; Australia has a carbon-trading scheme