The Environment Ministry plans to tackle global warming by paying community groups for their reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, ministry officials said Friday.

For each kilogram of carbon dioxide cut, community groups will receive 50 yen from the ministry.

Some 200 million yen will be requested for the program, which is slated to begin in fiscal 2003, the officials said.

The ministry plans to reward efforts to cut emissions, such as local shop operators setting their air conditioners at higher temperatures during hot weather, community members reducing the use of cars and large stores installing solar panels.

Community councils set up according to the law to promote global-warming countermeasures will be targeted. Consumer groups, chambers of commerce and other nonprofit organizations on the councils may also be eligible for payments under the plan.

The ministry will set up a panel to assess a group's efforts a year after their implementation. If the panel judges an organization's contribution to be valid, the Japan Fund for Global Environment will pay the organization up to 20 million yen, the officials said.

The Japan Fund for Global Environment is run by the ministry-affiliated Japan Environmental Corp.

The ministry estimates that if a community that uses 50 taxis opts instead to share 200 used bikes, it would cut carbon dioxide emissions by 22 tons per year. For its effort, such a community would receive 1.1 million yen, it said.

"We'd like to help the (carbon dioxide) reduction efforts by financing them at an early stage," a ministry official said.