As a measure to prevent global warming, Sony carries out activities related to emissions trading, simultaneously with implementing energy conservation measures at its sites.

United States
In addition to its own energy saving initiatives, Sony's global warming countermeasures include participating in emissions trading programs. In the United States, Sony Electronics Inc. (SEL) has joined the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), a voluntary greenhouse gas emissions allowance trading system. Under CCX guidelines, SEL is committed to achieving a 6% reduction in direct CO2 emissions* from energy used at its sites in the United States from the 2000 level by 2010. Under this system, participating companies are committed to achieving CO2 emission reduction targets, spread over two phases, by 2010. Audit results confirmed that as of the end of 2009, SEL had achieved a 5% reduction in CO2 emissions compared with the base level, thereby surpassing the company's 2009 target for Phase II.

Japan
In April 2010, the Tokyo metropolitan government enacted mandatory emissions reduction regulations with a cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme, based on the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance on Environmental Preservation. At business sites covered by these regulations, Sony is steadily working to meet the mandated requirements through such measures as the formulation of emissions reduction plans based on collaboration among Sony Group companies and business sites.

In 2008, Japan launched a pilot national emissions trading scheme. An experimental undertaking designed to set necessary standards and detect problems, this scheme was instituted to prepare Japan for the possible introduction of a full-scale emissions trading scheme at some time in the future. Sony has set targets for reducing the absolute volume of CO2 emissions from its semiconductor fabrication operations -- its principal source of CO2 emissions in Japan -- for fiscal year 2010, and participated in this pilot scheme as the Sony Group.

Sony is also an investor in the Japan Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (JGRF), a carbon fund established in December 2004 to acquire certified emissions reductions from greenhouse gas reduction projects in developing countries in the form of credits for distribution to investor companies. As of the end of April 2011, Sony had purchased credits worth approximately 17,700 tons of CO2.

In addition, Japan operates a domestic Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a framework under which large companies become joint implementation partners in greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects executed by small and medium-sized companies in Japan, and purchase carbon credits generated by such projects. Under this system, Sony has received certification as a joint implementation partner in two emissions reduction projects, and in fiscal year 2010 purchased credits worth approximately 500 tons of CO2. One of these projects, an emissions reduction project in Tokamachi, Niigata Prefecture, involves not only an initiative carried out by the Tokamachi municipal government but also emissions reduction projects implemented by small and medium-sized companies operating in Tokamachi, with which the municipal government has become a joint implementation partner. Sony plans to purchase credits generated by these projects from the Tokamachi municipal government.