In a move to curb global warming, the Japanese government today announced a number of measures to implemented in the next years.

It decided to put into practice a technology aimed at storing CO2 underground. The country hopes to cut CO2 collection costs from the current $39 per ton to $19 by the 2020s through the so-called ‘‘carbon dioxide capture and storage’’ method. First experiments are scheduled for next year.

Japan really means it. The government also said it plans to actively foster solar technologies, hoping to boost the current amount of solar energy generation in the country by a factor of 10 by 2020 and by a factor 40 another 10 years later. Prices of solar power generation systems for home and industrial use are expected to be reduced through political help by 50% by 2013.

In addition, the government said 50% of all cars sold in Japan should be electric by 2020.

The initiatives are mainly driven by Japan’s prime minister Yasuo Fukuda. The big idea of the so-called “Fukuda vision” is to reduce Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions by 60 to 80 percent by 2050.