Organizer

• ICLEI Japan Office
• International Strategy Division, Global Environmental Bureau, Ministry of the Environment, Japan

Event Overview

With the adoption of the Paris Agreement Rulebook at UNFCCC COP24, focus has shifted Action and Implementation in 2019. In addition, IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (Oct 2018) have inspired many in the world to gear up their actions in order to limit the global warming to 1.5°C.

Under these circumstances, the Japanese Government has indicated CO2 Zero emission in the long-term growth strategy, and in the section that explains measures to reduce CO2 emission in regions and living, it indicates government aim to realize carbon neutral, resilient and lively regions and living, and to create circulating and ecological economy by 2050. In order to realize this goal, it is recognized widely that social and economic reform is necessity. As a consequence, the roles and initiatives of non-state actors, especially local and regional governments, businesses and the financial industry, that are involved in action and implementation, are attracting attention. Furthermore, with the recognition that comprehensive approach is necessary for social and economic reform, UN Climate Change Summit in NY will be held back-to-back with UN SDGs Summit on the 23rd of September. Comprehensive approach is becoming mainstream and issues such as biodiversity loss and circular economy are also discussed in similar approach.

This side event aims at introducing the latest activities and challenges of local governments working to improve the overall environment, society and economy through decarbonization and SDGs localization and thus hoping to contribute to the UNFCCC discussion. This side event is the follow-up version of "City and Region at De-carbonization Era: SDGs Localization and the role of environment, society and economy in the City and Region. – Circulating and Ecological Economy – ", which was held at COP24.

Speaker

• Emani Kumar, ICLEI World Secretariat, Deputy Secretary General
• Shinjiro Koizumi, Ministry of the Environment, Japan, Minister
• Ashok Sridharan, City of Bonn, Mayor (ICLEI President)
• Minna Arve, City of Turku, Mayor (EU Presidency)
• Agnes Schönfelder, City of Mannheim, Head of the Climate Change Strategy Office
• Takeshi Shimotsuma, Global Environment Policy Office, Kyoto City, Supervising Director
• Eriko Yakushiji, Climate Change Policy Headquarters, Yokohama City, Director-General
• Wang Dong, Shenzhen Research Center on Climate Change, Director
• Toshiyuki Yamazoe, The Office of Strategic Planning and Resilience, Toyama City, Senior Adviser for International Business Relations
• Soichiro Muroga, Sustainable Energy Policy Division, Environment Department, Nagano Prefecture, Associate Director

Event Summary

With the moderation by ICLEI Deputy Secretary General, policymakers of national and subnational governments gathered and discussed the policies and actions taken by the cities and regions to synergize de-carbonaization, resource efficiency and ecological balance through localizing SDGs (realization of Circular Ecological Economy). At the beginning of the session, Minister Koizumi from Ministry of Environment of Japan introduced the growing intiatives by Japanese local governments declaring Zero Carbon by 2050, followd by Mayors from Bonn (Germany), Turku (Finland) providing leading examples of local governments taking drastic measures to achieve decarbonized and resource efficient cities.

Session was followed by panel discussion where Japanese local governments (Kyoto City, Yokohama City, Toyama City, and Nagano Prefecture) together with Shenzen (China) and Manheim (Germany) shared their policies and actions. Importance of incorporating voices from citizens, especially from youth, were reaffirmed together with the nessecity of multilevel collaboration. Furthermore, expectation of enhanced city to city collaboration through network such as ICLEI's Green Circulare Cities Coalition (GCCC) were shared.