TOKYO - Poland will soon sign a deal to sell a total 40 million euros ($60 million) of surplus greenhouse gas emission rights to Spain and Ireland, the first such government-to-government deal under the Kyoto Protocol, its environment minister said.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, signatory nations that are comfortably below their emissions targets can sell their surpluses in the form of credits, called Assigned Amount Units (AAUs), to governments and companies that are short of their goals.

Poland, the European Union's biggest ex-communist state, is able to sell about 500 million tons in CO2 equivalent of AAUs over the 2008-2012 period of Kyoto's first phase and is looking to sell them in Japan, said Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki, who was visiting Tokyo for an investment seminar.

Just in two weeks I will sign the first contract with Spain and with Ireland through EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), Nowicki told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

The EBRD has set up a Multilateral Carbon Credit Fund to help governments seeking to trade such surplus credits via market schemes under the Kyoto Protocol.

Spain and Ireland this year in budgets together have 40 million euros for this purpose, he said, referring to the value to be spent on Poland's AAUs by the two governments. Nowicki declined to disclose the amount of AAUs or other details. ($1=.6665 Euro)

(Reporting by Risa Maeda; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

Poland Japan Climate change