Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- CLP Holdings Ltd., producer of electricity in six Asian economies, set a target to cut carbon emissions per unit of generation by 75 percent by 2050, seeking to benefit from the start of global emissions trading.

The company fixed interim targets for emissions cuts for 2010, 2020 and 2035, said Richard McIndoe, managing director of Hong Kong-based CLP's Australian unit. As part of the strategy, CLP will boost investments in renewable energy, including an investment in an 82.4-megawatt wind farm in India, he said.

CLP is announcing the targets as government officials from 187 nations meet in Bali, Indonesia, for United Nations- sponsored talks to discuss a new international treaty to limit emissions blamed for global warming after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. The U.S. has rejected the Kyoto treaty because it doesn't include restrictions on emissions from developing countries.

``We hope that by investing in lower-emitting technologies early, when an international carbon-trading environment is established -- which we believe will inevitably come -- we are therefore better positioned than others who haven't made the early investment in the technology,'' McIndoe said in a telephone interview.

The strategy means CLP will be ``more selective'' in its investment in generation plants, McIndoe said. It won't build any new coal-fired plants in developed countries and will only build coal plants in developing countries that can be fitted with carbon-capture technology when it's available, he said.

Carbon Trading

``We're not just going to be competing for every coal-fired power station that's being built,'' McIndoe said. ``There may be an opportunity cost in the short term but in the long term it positions us well because it's inevitable that all these countries are going to have to join into an international carbon-trading environment.''

The Indian wind farm project, to be built in Karnataka state through an agreement with Germany's Enercon GmbH, may cost more than $105 million, CLP and its Australian unit, TRUenergy Pty, said in an e-mailed statement. Construction of the Saundatti project is due to start at the end of next year, Andrew Brandler, CLP's chief executive officer, said in the statement.

The company aims to cut so-called carbon intensity of its business from 0.84 kilogram of carbon per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated to 0.8 kilogram by 2010, to 0.7 kilogram by 2020, 0.45 kilogram by 2035 and 0.2 kilogram by 2050, McIndoe said. CLP has more than 17,000 megawatts of generating capacity in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Thailand and Australia.

`More Ambitious'

The targets are ``a reasonable start,'' said Monica Richter, Sydney-based sustainability programs manager at the Australian Conservation Foundation, an environmental group.

``It's an important step in the right direction for companies in China to be looking at these kinds of targets, but we need to be much more ambitious, particularly in developed countries like Australia,'' Richter said. It doesn't necessarily mean CLP's total emissions will fall, she said.

Melbourne-based TRUenergy owns the 1,480-megawatt Yallourn brown coal-fired power plant in Australia's Victoria state, which emits about 14.5 million metric tons a year of carbon dioxide, or about 1.3 tons of carbon per kilowatt-hour. It was the most polluting of Victoria's five biggest coal-fired generators after International Power Plc's Hazelwood plant, according to a 2005 report by Environment Victoria and the Australian Conservation Foundation.

TRUenergy is considering introducing technology at Yallourn to dry brown coal before using it to generate power, which may reduce emissions by as much as 25 percent, McIndoe said. It may then introduce gasification technology to cut emissions by a further 20 percent to 30 percent, he said. Technology to capture carbon emissions from waste gases and dispose them underground won't be commercially viable until at least 2020.

The start-up of a gas-fired generator at Tallawarra, New South Wales, in about six months will also cut emissions intensity, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 6, 2007 23:46 EST