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Russia OGK-3 eyeing investments under Kyoto Protocol
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian electricity producer OGK-3 is hiring consultants to help it secure clean energy investments through the Joint Implementation scheme of the Kyoto Protocol, the company said in a statement on Monday.
The scheme allows investors to fund the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in developing or former communist countries, and then make a profit on their investments by selling the emissions cuts in the developed world.
Developed economies and companies in the West buy these cuts in order to meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty that seeks to stave off global warming by reducing the world's emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
"Within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, OGK-3 plans to realize projects to build new power generating units, as well as efforts to revamp technology and modernize existing power capacity," the statement said.
OGK-3 is controlled by Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel producer.
Finnish utility Fortum became the first to sign a major deal under the new mechanisms in Russia in February when it bought more than 5 million emissions reduction credits, worth more than $100 million, from another electricity producer, TGC-1.
Power producer OGK-6 has since struck a similar deal worth $6.8 million with the U.K-based Clean Planet Group.
(Reporting by Simon Shuster)
