NEW DELHI: India and Japan have strengthened their climate cooperation by agreeing on a set of guidelines for a joint environmental project aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The development, announced on June 8, comes alongside a separate report highlighting emissions linked to Japan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) resales across Asia, including India.
The two countries have adopted the ‘Rule of Implementation’ of the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The rule sets out the operational and governance framework for bilateral climate cooperation between the two nations.
It defines procedures, safeguards and rules for validating low-carbon projects, generating emission reduction credits, and ensuring their secure transfer.
Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement allows countries to voluntarily cooperate to meet their climate targets by trading Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs).
India and Japan had last year signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) for the JCM, establishing a framework for mitigation activities that deliver greenhouse gas emission reductions or removals while supporting sustainable development outcomes in India and contributing to the achievement of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of both countries.
The Rule of Implementation also establishes governance arrangements, including a Joint Committee comprising representatives from both governments, transparent project approval procedures, third-party validation and verification, sustainable development safeguards, and national registries to track the issuance and transfer of credits.
The Joint Crediting Mechanism is expected to catalyse investment, technology transfer and capacity building for low-carbon projects in India, supporting climate change mitigation and sustainable development.
In a separate development, a new report has raised environmental concerns over Japan’s re-sales of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Asia between 2020 and 2025, with emissions equivalent to those of around 17 coal plants in a year. India is among the top 10 buyers in Asia, alongside countries including China and South Korea.
LNG is primarily composed of methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas in the short term. In the first 20 years after its release, methane can heat the atmosphere around 80 times more than carbon dioxide.
Around 30% of total emissions in the LNG supply chain come from methane leaks during production and processing, as well as from combustion during end use.
The analysis by international research group Zero Carbon Analytics (ZCA) found that 16.5 billion kg of LNG produced in the United States and re-sold by Japan to nine Asian countries between 2020 and 2025 generated approximately 63.5 billion kg of CO₂ emissions across the fuel’s full supply chain. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of around 17 coal plants.
The findings come as Japan expands its role as one of the world’s leading LNG traders. In 2024, it was the world’s second-largest LNG trader. While Japan continues to import LNG for domestic power generation, it also exports surplus volumes to countries as far as Brazil, France and Thailand.
Between 2021 and 2025, Japan sold 77% more US LNG to other countries than it imported for domestic use.
Of these resales, 31% went to Asia between 2020 and 2025, according to Data Desk, a group that analyses the global oil and gas industry for NGOs. Europe remained the largest regional buyer, while South Korea, China and India were among Japan’s top 10 Asian destinations.