Summary of the Symposiumon
Cities and Climate Change(June 28, 2024)
The Overseas Environment Cooperation Center (OECC) organized its
Symposium on Cities and Climate Change on June 28, 2024. This Symposium
was designed to contribute to the preparatory process of the IPCC “Special
Report on Climate Change and Cities.” (See the attached program.)

I.

Proceedings(Part 1)
(1) Special Report
Mr. Yutaka Matsuzawa, Vice-Minister for Global Environmental
Affairs (Ministry of the Environment) delivered his special report on“Updates on international debates on global environment issues” andupdated on (a) Climate Change, (b) G7 Summit and G7 Ministerial Meetingon Climate, Energy and Environment, (c) Biodiversity and (d) Other
international initiatives made by Government of Japan.
(2) Keynote Lecture I
Prof. Winston Chow, Co-chair of IPCC WGII (Singapore Management
University) made his lecture on “IPCC Special Report on Climate Change,
The roadmap ahead” to outline the background of the IPCC Special Reporton Cities, to update of its preparation status after its Scoping Meeting(April 2024) and to share its roadmap toward completing its Special Reportin early 2027, as shown below.

1Figure 1. Roadmap towards the completion of IPCC Special Report on Climate Change & Cities (Source: Prof.
Winston Chow, IPCC Special Report on Climate Change & Cities, The roadmap ahead, #3,
6th Hashimoto Symposium on Cities and Climate Change, 2024)(3) Keynote Lecture II
Mr. Toru Hashimoto, President of Y-Bridge and former Director
General on Development Cooperations (City of Yokohama) mad his lecture
on “Significance of City-to-City Collaboration for Further Green
Transformation (GX)” to introduce Yokohama’s experience in City-to-City
Collaboration Program on climate change and to share his own thoughts
over the role of global networking and cities in Japan.

(Part 2)
A Panel was organized to discuss what and how initiatives andexperiences by Japan would contribute to the international community inaddressing climate change. The Panel consisted of Five (5) national experts
as its panelists and one (1) professional as a discussant as follows:(Panelists)
Prof. Nobuo Mimura, Professor, Ibaraki University
Ms. Yatsuka Kataoka, Program Director, City Taskforce, IGES
Mr. Makoto Kato, Member, Board of Director, OECC
Mr. Togo Uchida, Executive Director, ICLEI Japan(Discussant)Dr. Muneki Adachi, Associate Professor, Keio University2

(Moderator)
Dr. Kazu Takemoto, President, OECC
Each Panelist has been asked to respond to the following questions:(1) What initiatives/activities have cities and local governments
implemented to address climate change? What actions will be taken
to disseminate these efforts in an effective manner?
(2) Among Japan's initiatives, what experience will be useful for the
IPCC's Special Report on Cities?
(3) What are the best ways for these experiences to contribute to the
preparatory process for the IPCC Special Report?

II.

Outcome of Symposium

1．Cities and Climate Change
Some 56% of the world’s population live in cities 1 and is projected toreach nearly 70% by 2050. With its population and the coupled by the
associated urban activities, cities are a key contributor to climate change.
It is estimated that urban areas are responsible for 70 percent of global CO2
emissions, with transport and buildings being among the largest
contributors (IPCC2, 2022). Carbon neutrality by 2050 cannot be achieved
without substantial GHG emission reduction in cities.
We have seen encouraging trend in this regard. First, cities are drivers
for economic growth, with huge investment opportunities for climatechange. Secondly, many cities are part of the solutions, taking actions tolimit GHG emissions by promoting renewable energy, circular economy,
zero emission houses/buildings and many others. Cities are benefiting fromclimate change solutions that contribute to addressing the challenges cities
are facing such as air pollution, waste management and other development1

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/overview#:~:text=Today%2C%20some%2056%25%20of%20the,people%20will%20live%20in%20cities.
2
IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III
to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea,
R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M.
Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
and New York, NY, USA. doi: 10.1017/9781009157926

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problems, while achieving sharp reduction of GHG emission.
Cities play an increasingly important role in tackling climate change
impacts, too, because of their exposure to increasing climate-related
disaster risks. Climate change also costly impacts on cities' wide range ofdevelopment gains for basic services, infrastructure, housing, livelihoods
and health.
With growing concern over the interlinkage between climate change andcities, climate change and cities became an emerging agenda increasingly
highlighted at international forum. The G7 Ministerial Communique on
Climate, Energy and Environment in April 2023 called attention to the roleof cities3. The same policy direction was also emphasized in the decision at
the COP28 in Dubai of last December4.

2． Experiences in Japan
In Japan, cities play an essential role in achieving its carbon neutrality
by 2050. Decarbonization measures as well as adaptation measures in cities
have been promoted in many ways with special attention to their synergies
with local development strategies as well as with solutions for local
challenges.
(1) Climate Change Mitigation Act
Following the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1998, the Climate Change
Mitigation Act was enacted as a framework for the national government,
local governments, businesses, and citizens to addressing climate change
mitigation together. Under the framework, the local governments haveplayed a key role from the outset. All the local governments are encouraged
to formulate their Action Plans to address climate change mitigation by
setting out GHG emission reduction target by adopting mitigation
measures. Local governments including cities such as Tokyo or Yokohama
has sometimes introduced innovative measures ahead of national
government as was seen in the case in emission trading scheme by Tokyo.
The recent amendment of the Act in 2021 legally underpinned thecommitment for carbon neutral by 2050, which thereafter navigate theclimate change measures to be aligned with the above national commitment.
The amendment also introduced a new framework to further promote local

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https://www.env.go.jp/content/000127828.pdf
https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma2023_L17E.pdf

4decarbonization actions by promoting synergies with local development andreducing negative impacts on (or trade-off with) local challenges. The local
renewable energy projects are be accelerated through fast track with onestop issuance of permits and licenses that would otherwise go throughlengthy process, when the projects contribute to environmental
conservation and local social and economic development. This framework
allows local governments to align with their decisions or priorities.
In addition, open access to corporate GHG emissions has beensignificantly improved, which allows local governments to advance theirown decarbonization policies and measures in a speedy and transparentway.
(2) Climate Change Adaptation Act and A-PLAT
Climate Change Adaptation Act was enforced in 2018 in response to the“Report on Assessment of Impacts of Climate Change in Japan and Future
Challenges,” which called for comprehensive and science-based adaptation
measures in Japan. The Act has legally underpinned the adaptation
measures and enabled the cross-sectoral measures to be taken by national
government, local governments, private sectors, and citizens under therespective responsibilities.
Local governments including cities play a fundamental role in planningand implementation for their climate change adaptation policies andmeasures. Under the Act, most cities are encouraged to formulate “Local
Climate Change Adaptation Plan” that assesses possible climate impacts incities and accordingly tailors local adaptation measures in the economic andsocial context. Cities are also encouraged to establish Local Climate Change
Adaptation Center to promote their adaptation plans and disseminate
information related to impacts and adaptation
Given that the lack of knowledge and supporting data has been a major
challenge for local governments, Climate Change Adaptation Information
Platform (A-PLAT) was set up to function as a center of excellence to enablelocal governments as well as private sector or citizens to take the latest
scientific knowledge into local adaptation measures through PDCA cycle.
The lessons learned and good practices as well as local impacts have been
accumulated and broadly disseminated to international societies through
A-PLAT as well as information platform named Asia-Pacific Climate
Change Adaptation Information Platform (AP-PLAT), too.

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(3) Decarbonization Leading Areas（DLAs）
Japan made local decarbonization the central pillar of its policy package
to achieve its carbon neutrality commitment by 2050. In 2021, theGovernment of Japan formulated the Regional Decarbonization Roadmap(RDR), which laid out local growth strategy and decarbonization projects
that take full advantage of local resources (e.g. renewable energy).
The RDR underpinned the principles that Japan would pursue climatechange policies while addressing other social challenges such as an aging
population and declining birthrate or rural depopulation. It has reframed
decarbonization measures as solutions to promote local development andtackle other social challenges.
The purpose of RDR is to contribute to local development that solves local
environmental problems and improves the attractiveness and quality of
local communities through designating 100 (at a minimum)5 DLAs under
the strong leadership by local government, local businesses as well as local
financial institutions through intensive mobilization of policies, technology,
information and finance.
The DLAs, being with relatively large capacities in many cases, hasdemonstrated that the quality of residents’ life can be improved by solving
local problems. The local knowledge accumulated in the preceding DLAs
will be then rolled out as good models to other smaller local governments
which may learn and tailor their own decarbonization actions. Thissequential decarbonization triggered by RDAs is called “Decarbonization
Domino,” because advanced decarbonization models will be disseminatednationwide and lead to the carbon neutral by 2050 as a whole.
(4) City-to-City Collaboration Program (C3P)
City-to-City Collaboration Program (C3P) was launched in 2013 by the
Ministry of the Environment, Japan (MOEJ) to promote decarbonizationin cities by sharing knowledge and lessons between cities in Japan andthose abroad. Since then, the participating cities on board have increased
to 20 cities in Japan and 49 cities across 13 countries in its partnercountries by the end of March 2024.
C3P has been unique in its multilayered cooperation between Japanand partner countries with participation by local governments, privatecompanies, universities, and national governments. The multilevel
partnership enabled the packaged cooperation, which is another key
feature in the program's success. In C3P, support for decarbonization

5 74 DLAs are designated by the MOEJ as of April 2024.

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project development has been packaged by relevant policymaking,institutional building, technology transfer and capacity-building.
In some cities where the need for introducing mitigation technologies is
identified, the program has further led to infrastructure projects making
full use of the financial schemes under the “Joint Crediting Mechanism”(JCM).

Figure 2. Conceptual diagram of City-to-City Collaboration Program (C3P) (Source: Ministry of theEnvironment Japan, 2023, https://www.env.go.jp/earth/coop/lowcarbon-asia/english/project/ )An example of a successful case of C3P is the collaboration between theTokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) and Kuala Lumpur City, Malaysia.
Kuala Lumpur established a data-driven system for promoting energy
savings in public facilities by adjusting to its local conditions with reference
to the TMG’s green building system. The collaboration also contributed toraising the ambition of Kuala Lumpur City, which declared its 2050 Zero
Carbon Declaration in 2023. In 2022, Saitama City joined the collaboration,
responding to the needs of Kuala Lumpur to extend the scope of carbonneutral activities to city blocks and districts.
As another good practice, Yokohama City has worked with Da Nang City
in Vietnam. The cooperation between the two cities led to the introductionof high-efficiency pumps at the Da Nang Waterworks Corporation. This
experience in introducing high-efficiency pumps has been extended to other
cities in Vietnam as a horizontal extension of the technology. Likewise, theprojects under the C3P contribute to the realizing decarbonized cities
around the world by spreading the decarbonization measures fromJapanese cities to overseas cities, which is called “Decarbonization Domino”.
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３．Findings(1) Cities have enormous emission reduction potential as they are among
the largest source of GHG emission. Cities are forefront of increasing
risks of climate change, too. Required responses are different depending
on characteristics of cities such as coastal cities, mountainous cities,
cities in developing countries and others. With that in mind, it would be
essential to sort out relevant measures by typologies of cities.
It is also important to pursue climate change measures that are
integrated with urban development strategies or policies, supported byinitiatives to promote these measures.

Figure 3. Multidimensional Approach to “Climate Change and Cities” (Source: Prof. Nobuo Mimura, #1,
6th Hashimoto Symposium on Cities and Climate Change, 2024)(2) Challenges faced by policymakers at city level are not well recognized atnational level in most cases. For instance, local policymakers lag behindin financial knowledge, which is not well shared in the process for the
IPCC Special Report.
(3) In terms of successful climate solutions or climate actions, what canwork in a city would go beyond the city border, being effective in other
cities.
8International networks of cities have played a significant role inenabling IPCC to enhance cooperation with practitioners, as was thecase for IPCC having worked together with GCoM, C40 and otherimportant urban networks. City-to-city collaboration program that has
unfolded by city of Yokohama in Bangkok or Da Nang is an outstandingachievement, which is expected to be horizontally deployed in other
cities or other countries.
In this context, it is worthwhile compiling successful approaches andgeneralized experiences which are extracted by analyzing individual
cases through City-to-City Cooperation programs and international
development cooperation projects.
(4) In the reviewing process of the IPCC Special Report, it is recommended
to include a wide range of stakeholders as much as possible, by inviting
not only policymakers and legislators but those who will be vulnerable
to climate change risks to be increased by city growth, such as citizens
in cities, multilateral companies, small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs). To further mobilize communication with a wide range ofpractitioners, it is useful to organize platforms such as virtual
workshops and webinars.
(5) Cities have produced enormous amount of knowledge every year. This is
not limited to scientific knowledge but all the practical knowledge thatlike an urban policy, urban development or how to implement thepolicies and changes in the way of the behavior of people. It is important
to incorporate the practical knowledge and experiences into the IPCC
Special Report by exploring innovative ways to facilitate communication
between the IPCC and city practitioners.
(6) It is important to interlink urban policies at local level with climatechange policies at international and global level. The extreme weather
events including flooding and heat wave have taken place in a more
frequent and intensified manner as the consequence of climate change.
In addressing these extreme phenomena, it is noted that urban policies
and climate adaptation policies have been well coordinated at local level.
(7) Climate change measures in cities are more relevant to demand side
measures including decarbonization through behavioral changes. IPCC
6th synthesis report shows that the demand side climate change
measures will potentially reduce up to 70% GHG emission by 2050.
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(8) While level of ambition for global GHG emission reduction is to beraised through periodical revisit of Nationally Determined
Contributions (NDCs), local government can spearhead national
governments by ratchetting up the ambition of the 2035 or 2040 target
at local level in advance of the scheduled revisit of NDCs by national
governments.
In this regard, multilateral and global initiatives of cities including
ICLEI and C40 are well positioned to play an essential role, given that
it is often difficult to raise global ambition by Parties only, due to its
top-down nature of UNFCCC as well as to the inevitable interfaces ofnational emission reduction targets with other policies such as ofenergy or economic security.
[Box: local initiatives in setting ambitious targets]
The table shows the GHG emission reduction target by 2030 of ICLEIJapan members. The member cities or local governments have very
ambitious targets that include 50% or 60% reduction by 2030, whereas
the emission reduction target by government of Japan is 46%. They are
expected to advance the collaboration with national government by
sharing the local knowledge obtained in the measures to achieve theambitious goal, which will then be followed by further input to IPCC
and other global forum.

(9) Following ideas are suggested for further consideration as to how we cantranslate the knowledge produced by practitioners on the ground tointernationally academic community in similar manner as academic
literatures:
101) It is highly valuable to document the experiences of cities in academic
papers as much as possible. These papers will likely be widely cited in
the academic community, including in the IPCC Special Report. To
achieve this, it is important to provide information to researchers atuniversities and research institutions, and to conduct joint research.
Collaboration between researchers and practitioners in writing these
papers is highly desirable.
2) Japanese cities and relevant institutions should report theirexperiences on the climate change responses and urban policies inEnglish. They will serve as valuable sources of information for the
IPCC Special Report as so-called grey literature. For example, theknowledge accumulated through the ten-year city-to-city collaboration
program by IGES is an example of what should be compiled into suchreports.
3) Another approach is to disseminate information in collaboration withinternational networks. For example, when ICLEI compiles theexperiences of cities around the world, providing Japan's experiences
and cooperating with them can position Japan's experiences in theinternational context. Collaborating with networks that haveextensive experience in information dissemination will enhance theimpact of the reports.
(10) We call on global stakeholders, including IPCC, to actively organize
forums for exchange, such as international symposiums, where
researchers and practitioners from various countries can gather anddiscuss. These platforms for exchanging ideas are extremely important
to explore solutions to climate change and urban issues and to identify
solutions for diverse cities with varied geographic and socio-economic
backgrounds.
These international forums will serve as a driver for exchanging
information, identifying key issue and deepening shared understanding
toward developing the common goal of sustainable development of cities.

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Attachment: Program
Opening Remarks

Dr. Kazu Takemoto (President, OECC)[PART 1]
Special Report“Updates on international debates on global environment issues”

Mr. Yutaka Matsuzawa (Vice-Minister for Global Environmental Affairs, Ministry of
the Environment, Japan)
Keynote Lecture I (online)“IPCC Special Report on Climate Change & Cities, the roadmap ahead”

Prof. Winston Chow (Co-chair of IPCC WGII/Professor, Singapore Management
University)
Keynote Lecture II“Significance of City-to-City Collaboration for Further Green Transformation (GX)”

Mr. Toru Hashimoto, (President of Y-Bridge, former Director General on
Development Cooperations at the City of Yokohama)
Q&A/Discussions (I)[PART 2]
Panel Discussion

Moderated by Dr. Kazu Takemoto (President, OECC)
Panelist:- Prof. Nobuo Mimura (Chairman of OECC/Professor and Former President of
Ibaraki University）- Ms. Yatsuka Kataoka (Program Director of City Taskforce, IGES)- Mr. Makoto Kato (Member of Board of Directors, OECC)- Mr. Togo Uchida (Executive Director, ICLEI Japan)
Discussant:- Dr. Muneki Adachi, Associate Professor, Keio University
Key Questions:a) What initiatives/activities have cities and local governments implemented toaddress climate change? What actions will be taken to disseminate these efforts inan effective manner?
b) Among Japan's initiatives, what experience will be useful for the IPCC's Special
Report on Cities?
c) What are the best ways for these experiences to contribute to the preparatory
process for the IPCC Special Report?
Q&A/Discussion (II)Wrap-up by Moderator
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