that is engaged in research, learning, and vocational training activities on living condition improvements for poor women. This technical cooperation project dispatches experts and accepts trainees to assess the current situation surrounding women, to implement activities tailored to poor women's needs such as literacy, sanitation, health education and income generation, and to facilitate social and family understanding on these activities by women.

### 3. Addressing Global Issues

Issues such as global warming and other environmental problems, infectious diseases, population, food, energy, natural disasters, terrorism, piracy, drugs, and international organized crime cannot be solved by just one country, as they transcend national borders and pose a threat to all of humanity. In order to contribute to ensuring the stability and prosperity of the international community, Japan addresses these issues and plays an active role in creating international norms through international cooperation.

## (1) Environmental Issues

Japan’s record in FY2007 is as follows:

Loan aid (ODA loans): Approx. ¥415.8 billion (to 10 countries)

Grant aid: Approx. ¥24.0 billion (to 34 countries)

Technical cooperation

2,511 trainees accepted

189 experts dispatched $ ^{40} $

431 JOCV etc. dispatched

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The international community as a whole should be determined to address environmental issues for the prosperity of humankind in future. Those issues have been discussed in international fora since the 1970s, and, through discussions at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, also called the Earth Summit) in 1992 and at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) of 2002, the importance of them has been increasingly recognized. Constructive discussion also took place on environment and climate change at the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit held in July 2008 that took up it as one of major themes.

See Part I Chapter 1 (page 5) on Japan's leadership in climate change issues.

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## ☑ Actions against Global Warming

In January 2008, then Prime Minister Fukuda announced the Cool Earth Promotion Programme that proposed the Cool Earth Partnership where Japan actively participated in a new post-2013 framework and supported developing countries making efforts to mitigate climate change by greenhouse gas emission reduction while achieving economic growth. In addition, Japan, along with the United States and the United Kingdom, takes the lead in establishing the Climate Investment Funds under the World Bank, and it declared that it would donate up to US$1.2 billion.

## Pollution Control

Tackling its own pollution problems, Japan has accumulated a great amount of experience and technology. Making the most of such experience and technology, Japan cooperates with developing countries in addressing their pollution issues. Particularly, higher priority has been given to supporting pollution control and improving the living environment (air pollution, water contamination, waste management, etc.) in urban areas, mainly in the Asian countries achieving rapid economic growth. In FY2007, Japan constructed garbage disposal centers and provided garbage wagons to improve the living environment in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where garbage had rapidly increased due to a swell in population and other factors. $ ^{41} $ In Ulaanbaatar, Japan has been providing guidance, in collaboration with technical cooperation through JICA, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the government of Finland, and others, on operating and maintaining the facilities in order to develop the capacity of implementing agencies. In addition, Japan promotes measures against asbestos in Asia, which are still insufficient, by, for example, investigating the state of asbestos use.

## Conservation of the Natural Environment

Japan provides support to developing countries for nature reserve management, promotion of sustainable forest management, prevention of desertification, and natural resource management, while taking into account the poverty