Huge investments in green technology in Asia and steps towards domestic emissions trading are opening up the prospect of regional carbon trading. Many Asian countries such as China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea are not waiting for a follow up agreement to the Kyoto Protocol and will likely press ahead with their own national Cap –and Trade schemes to curb greenhouse gases.

Carbon has already become a valuable commodity. Businesses that want to survive in the new carbon economy must track and control their carbon emissions. In Europe companies are already well aware of this and several companies already took action. In Japan and Korea there seems to be a wait-and–see approach, but that is no good. Top companies will integrate carbon management into their every day operations, allowing them to identify and control liability and in some cases realize income from emission reductions. So to be well prepared the Japanese and Korean companies will have to start setting up a carbon management system right now.

Although it is still unclear when the Japanese Cap and Trade scheme will actually start, in the fiscal year 2012 or even later, one thing is for sure the Japanese companies need to start preparing themselves. Evidence shows that who starts too late will lose very good opportunities. Also South Korea will launch a national Carbon Cap and Trade system most likely in 2012. The big polluting companies that produced more than 125,000 tons of CO2 in the past 3 years will already have to start taking action from April 2011.

Carbon management is a framework for evaluating emission opportunity and risk. It is a tool to assess risk, mitigate liability, and develop new revenue streams. Accounting for emissions, identifying reduction opportunities, and then tracking actual emission reductions will become common business practice for many companies in the years to come.

I have done carbon management consulting for several companies in Europe and Asia. What always strikes me is that apart from the early adaptors many companies simply tend to start too late with the actual implementation work. The reason for this is that they underestimate the time it takes to go from a Boardroom idea to actual implement, and get the framework accepted by the people on the working floor. This is a lengthy change process that needs careful and planned management.

Companies that take early action can turn emission reductions into a positive by increasing income through carbon credits. Businesses that wait too long will suffer, as their emission reductions will show up only on the cost side of the ledger.

Recently I gave a very successful 4 day in-house workshop to one of the largest chemical firms in South Korea, in which we discussed all the issues that they will have to face regarding carbon management.

It will be my pleasure to discuss how we could support you with your carbon management as well.

Kasper Walet
Email: walet@maycroft.com
Tel: +31 20 531564

Last changed: 04/08/2013 at 12:43 pm