Message from the IGES President

The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) was established under an initiative of the Japanese Government in 1998 with the support of Kanagawa Prefecture. Over the following 25 years, IGES has acted as a “change agent”, leading the transformation toward a sustainable and resilient society in harmony with nature, and conducting practical research activities with an emphasis on the “co-production of knowledge” in collaboration with diverse stakeholders.

From FY2021, based on the 8th Phase Integrative Strategic Research Programme (ISRP8), IGES has been conducting strategic policy research at our offices in Japan and overseas covering a wide range of research, including four research areas (Climate and Energy, Sustainable Consumption and Production, Biodiversity and Forests, and Adaptation and Water), three task forces on Business, City and Finance, and the newly established Integrated Sustainability Centre. The Institute actively disseminates effective policy recommendations based on our research. Additionally, the Secretariat of the Paris Agreement Article 6 Implementation Partnership Center, which supports the promotion of market mechanisms as set out in the Paris Agreement, was established within IGES, and became fully operational from FY2023.

The world is now facing mounting global challenges – the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution, as well as food and energy security concerns stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the international community, there have been increasingly ambitious responses to global targets set out in the Paris Agreement, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Meanwhile, we are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of an integrated approach, aiming to address interrelated environmental, social and economic issues in an inclusive manner, linking science, policy and society. In this context, IGES endeavours to promote solution-oriented research with an emphasis on an integrated approach by introducing common focal areas in which each research unit collaborates on global, regional and national issues related to sustainable development. Furthermore, we are actively involved in and have contributed to the implementation of this approach both in Japan and beyond, such as synergies between climate action and the SDGs, as well as the realisation of the “Regional Circulating and Ecological Sphere (Regional CES)”, which aims to transition to a decarbonised, resource circulating society that is in harmony with nature, as well as responding to the emerging issue of plastic pollution.

FY2024 marks the final year of ISRP8. In addition to advancing our dynamic research activities and ensuring that we steadily deliver expected results, we will be working hard on the preparation of the ISRP9, our research programme for the next four years. In the face of various global challenges and ever-changing circumstances, we will deepen discussions on our new role as a sustainability think-tank to respond to the needs of the Asia-Pacific region and beyond from a more inclusive and integrated perspective, while leveraging our core competencies as an environmental think-tank.