Japan plans to 'buy Czech emissions allowance'

In a bid to try and reach its emissions goals, Japan has signed an agreement with the Czech Republic to allocate some of its greenhouse gas emissions to the Asian country.

Still falling short of the guidelines of the Kyoto Agreement, Japan's pledge to cut omissions to 1.19 billion tonnes by 2012 has seen them turn to the Czech Republic for extra allowances, planetark.org reported.

Japan is currently the world's fifth biggest emitter and needs to buy another 100 million tonnes of credit within the next four years.

Releasing a statement on the agreement, the Czech Environment Ministry explained: "It is impossible to say at the moment how many credits Japan will buy because it, along with the price of each unit sold will be subject to further negotiations."

Last year, figures compiled by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency revealed that China had overtaken the US when it comes to carbon dioxide emissions.