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Japan yen loans help China cut CO2 emissions by 190,000 tons in 2003+
[March 22, 2006]

Japan yen loans help China cut CO2 emissions by 190,000 tons in 2003+


(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, March 22_(Kyodo) _ China achieved a cut of 190,000 tons in emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2003 thanks to Japan's yen loans to finance environment protection projects, according to a survey report released Wednesday by Kyoto University.



The finding may affect Japan's decision to discontinue yen loans to China in 2008 as the financing program is believed to have contributed to a drop in the flow of environment-harmful CO2 to Japan from China, informed sources said.

Yen loans are yen-denominated loans provided by the Japanese government as economic assistance for developing countries.


At the request of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation that executes yen loans, a team of researchers from Kyoto University surveyed 16 environment protection projects that received 160 billion yen under the fourth yen loan program extended to China between 1996 and 2000.

Issues covered by the survey included the amount of desulfurization equipment installed in plants.

The team also surveyed a reduction in chemical oxygen demand, a measure to show the amount of organic compounds in water, and found a decrease in water pollution by the equivalent of 340,000 tons in 2003 due to the installation of sewage facilities under the financing program.

The team estimates that CO2 emissions and chemical oxygen demand in China would have reached 31.4 million and 52 million tons, respectively, in 2003 without any environment protection projects.

The 16 projects subject to the yen loan program and other environment projects in China as a whole reduced CO2 emissions and chemical oxygen demand by 2.2 million and 38 million tons, respectively, in the year.

Assistant Kyoto University Professor Akihisa Mori, who headed the research team, said that as "environment problems should not be dealt with by a country alone," Japan and China should continue cooperation in the field.

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