A Japanese trading company has joined forces with Cargill to develop greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects in developing countries.

Marubeni Corp. and Cargill, a food and agricultural producer and marketer, will target projects that will generate offset credits in forestry, biomass and renewable energy. The new partners will develop projects under current Kyoto and post-Kyoto frameworks for Japanese buyers.

In a statement released Tuesday, Marubeni said it has done emissions reduction projects overseas that generated credits for sale on the Japanese market.

Cargill began dabbling in emissions reduction projects last year when it sold 400,000 tonnes of verified emissions credits that were generated from its Canadian beef processing plant. A methane capture project at the site's wastewater treatment system helped to reduce natural gas use by 25 percent.

In addition to beginning a review of its palm oil suppliers on their sustainability performance, Cargill said earlier this month that it would invest AU$13 million (nearly US$11.8 million) to upgrade the wastewater treatment system at an Australian beef processing facility to capture methane and turn the gas into electricity. The project will trim the site's carbon footprint by 17 percent, in addition to improving the quality of its water discharge.

Last week Cargill's operation in Argentina announced it would invest millions of dollars in an 18 megawatt co-generation plant and a biodiesel production plant. Both projects will go online in late 2011.

Image CC licensed by Flickr user Stella Blu.