Chile has signed up to Japan’s Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), the fourteenth nation to join the bilateral offset crediting mechanism.

The deal, signed in Santiago on Tuesday, came only a week after Japan agreed to similar cooperation with Saudi Arabia.

An official at Japan’s Ministry of Environment told Carbon Pulse the Chile agreement has the same structure as previous deals, meaning it will aim to cut GHG emissions in Chile using Japanese technology and investments, and allow Japan to count some of those cuts towards its own climate target.

Chile becomes the third Latin American country to join the JCM, following Costa Rica and Mexico.

Japan currently estimates the mechanism will cut emissions by 50-100 million tonnes of CO2e between now and 2030.

However, at the moment only four projects have been approved under the scheme, with a combined capacity to cut less than 500 tonnes of CO2e per year.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com