'Japan plans $16 bn aid package for greenhouse-gas cuts'

Japan's public and private sectors will supply an aid package worth $16 billion over three years to help developing nations cut greenhouse-gas emissions, a report said Tuesday, as climate talks get underway in Warsaw.

The contribution would account for over 40 percent of the $35 billion that developing nations were expected to ask for to battle climate change, Japan's leading Nikkei business daily reported, without citing sources.

It added that Japan's contribution was expected to be approved by Tokyo on Friday and would then be announced at the UN conference in Poland, which started Monday.

The Nikkei report offered few specific details but said the package would include supplying so-called green technologies developed by Japanese firms including offshore wind turbines, fuel-cell vehicles and high-tech housing insulation, the Nikkei report said.

Japan also plans to launch a satellite in 2017 to monitor greenhouse gas emissions, it said, adding that Tokyo would announce its new greenhouse gas reduction targets at the talks.