From Peyton Knight:

The World Bank has agreed to pay two Chinese chemical companies $930 million in exchange for the companies’ promise to reduce their future greenhouse gas emissions in the name of fighting global warming.The two companies apparently have agreed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 19 million tons a year for an unspecified period of time. The World Bank says the deal is good through at least 2012, but it hasn’t disclosed the end date. The goal is to get China to reduce its emissions.

Of course, China is exempt from any mandatory emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol so it has no reason to do so – unless you toss nearly a billion dollars its way.

Ju Kuilin, Deputy Director General of China’s International Department at the Ministry of Finance, had this to say about the deal: “The Government of China attaches a high priority to participation in global efforts under the Kyoto Protocol. We are glad that it has been possible to bring forward this project, which we expect will make a significant contribution to these efforts, with two companies from Jiangsu Province.” 930 million dollars tends to generate enthusiasm for Kyoto where there was no enthusiasm before.

Kuilin’s government reportedly gets 65 percent of the $930 million ($604.5 million) to invest in “projects related to climate change.” We’ll see if that money actually makes it to its intended destination. China’s never been big on Kyoto, and government earmarks (especially large ones) have ways of straying from their intended paths.

It’s worth noting that U.S. is the single largest contributor to the World Bank, giving hundreds of millions of dollars annually.