10th Asia Smart City Conference “Yokohama Declaration”
Building smart cities aiming for carbon neutrality through city to citycollaboration under the influence of COVID-19(Trends toward Sustainable Cities)
1. We reaffirmed our commitment to international goals, including theSustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the New Urban Agenda adopted at
the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban
Development (Habitat III), and the Paris Agreement adopted at the Conferenceof the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (COP21).
Many cities have begun to adopt carbon neutrality as a basic policy for urban
management. However, since low-carbon initiatives do not show progress
overnight, mid- and short-term goals need to be set and specific initiatives
implemented by applying the back-casting approach to long-term goals andflexibly reviewing these against changes in the macro environment. “ZeroCarbon Yokohama”, an action plan for global warming, developed by the Cityof Yokohama, has also been formulated and revised based on this concept.
Similarly, more Asian countries are setting long-term goals for low carbon
emissions, and engaging in specific initiatives and city to city collaboration toachieve these goals.
Furthermore, with the growing interest in SDGs, over 100 local governments
around the world have published their VLR, a voluntary local review ofprogress on the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Japanese government
has also expressed its positive support. VLR is expected to serve as aframework for encouraging the participation of regional stakeholders andregional innovation, and help cities become more sustainable.
(Urban Issues and the Direction of Actions)
2. Higher densities in cities have created a social environment that has led tohigher productivity and higher income for urban residents, but at the same time,these have led to new urban issues that hamper sustainable development.
The spread of COVID-19 has also further highlighted issues such as
insufficient physical infrastructure, unequal access to core services, deficiency
in the infrastructure system, and overpopulation.
Under such circumstances, the participants shared the need to prioritize
initiatives for creating sustainable cities that also contribute to the achievementof the SDGs and goals of the Paris Agreement and which are consideredappropriate from the point of macro-environmental changes and costeffectiveness.
In addition, we confirmed that cities should aim for a good balance between
achievement of the low carbon society and economic development, and thatmeasures for low carbon can be an opportunity to enrich our lives, such as
through green investment and by creating innovation and jobs.
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(Potential of the Evolution of Solutions for Cities)
3. With the global spread of awareness of the importance of smart cities and theadvancement of digital technology, there are increasing opportunities for theacquisition, linkage and visualization of data in cities, as well as for cities andthe private sector to leverage these “open data” and “big data.” This wider useof data should lead to more effective measures against COVID-19 in the shortterm, and environmental load reduction, improved healthy life expectancy,enhanced education, improved corporate productivity and the creation ofhigher-quality services in the medium to long term.
It was also recognized that, in order for cities to address urgent urban
development issues, we do not necessarily have to adopt cutting-edge
technologies, but that smart solutions with a strong impact at low cost, whichhave been evolving in recent years, were also significant.
Furthermore, there were positive discussions not only on these technologicaladvances, but also on the possibility of the proposal made on a new businessmodel for the overseas development of cities as a total package which includes
lifestyle and other intangible aspects, such as City Management as a Service(CMaaS), which may contribute to urban development in Asia and otheremerging countries.
(Participation of New Players in Urban Development)
4. In addition to public organizations and large companies that have long played
an important role in building sustainable cities, the importance of having moreparticipation by new players such as startup companies and universities wasrecognized at the conference.
In the era of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA),
startups are emerging, one after another, that propose new technologies andsolutions worldwide, and their presence is growing in areas of smart cities andsustainability. In future, collaboration with startups will become indispensable
in all aspects of urban development.
In addition, from the perspective of fostering future leaders and generating newideas, it is noteworthy that exchanges between universities are advancing in
Asian countries. How the advanced research and new ideas from universities
can be incorporated into actual urban development will also become more
important for enhancing the attractiveness of cities.

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(Evolution of the City to City Collaboration)
5. In addition to inter-governmental cooperation and technical cooperation
between individual companies, advanced discussions were also held on thepotential of new city to city collaboration, not limited to Asia. The economic
development of Asian countries in recent years has been remarkable, and wesee many cases in which leading local private companies in the countries takethe lead in urban development, on behalf of local administrative agencies.
Therefore, city to city collaboration in the future development of smart cities
needs to ensure that the private and public sectors in the cities cooperate moreclosely in promoting the projects.
Furthermore, considering the ongoing efforts around the world towards smart
cities, Japan will need to cooperate, not only with Asian cities, but also withother cities in Europe and elsewhere, in future. This is an era in which cities
work together beyond regional boundaries, aiming for further advancement,by leveraging their mutual strengths in areas such as decarbonization, circular
economy, next-generation mobility and citizens' well-being. The Asia Smart
City Alliance (ASCA) which was established based on a proposal at the Asia
Smart City Conference, is able to play a key role in city to city collaboration
as a platform for promoting cooperation in information sharing.

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