Ukraine is to return unused funds that it received from selling AAUs to Japan in an international carbon trade under the first Kyoto Protocol’s commitment period (2008-2012).

The move comes after a request from the Japanese government, according to a Dec. 16 2015 statement signed by Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and posted on a government website.

The Japanese government and several companies bought some 44 million AAUs from Ukraine in a series of deals designed to help the government meet its legally binding emissions target under the Kyoto Protocol, according to a report by Austria’s Joanneum Research Institute.

It is unclear how much money will be returned to Japan as the parties did not disclose the price paid for the units or the amount of proceeds that had been successfully spent on so-called ‘greening’ programmes designed to stimulate low-carbon investment.

One of the AAU deals involved Ukraine deploying hundreds of Toyota Prius hybrid cars as police vehicles, but some of the other arrangements attracted huge controversy.

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was jailed in 2011 following accusations by rival Viktor Yanukovich that included misappropriating at least €200 million in AAU sale proceeds.

By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com