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. For over a quarter of a century, IGES has acted as an “agent of change,” leading the transformation towards a sustainable and resilient society in harmony with nature, and conducting strategic research with an emphasis on co-design, co-production and co-delivery of solutions with a wide range of stakeholders.

The world is currently facing a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. There have been ambitious responses to global targets set out in the Paris Agreement, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, but there has not been satisfactory progress towards achieving these targets. In addition, global conflicts and geopolitical changes are likely to impact these efforts in various ways. Now, as we enter the second half of the “decisive decade” that extends to 2030, the window of opportunity to realise a society where we can enhance the well-being of current and future generations within safe and just Earth system boundaries is rapidly closing.

Given these drastically changing global circumstances, we are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of an integrated and synergistic approach in addressing interrelated environmental, social and economic issues, rather than through a traditional siloed approach. In this context, IGES has endeavoured to promote an integrated approach for research units to collaborate on common focal areas, with examples demonstrated both in Japan and beyond. These include synergies between climate action and the SDGs, and the concept of the “Regional Circulating and Ecological Sphere (Regional CES)”, which aims for a transition to a decarbonised, resource circulating society that is in harmony with nature, as well as responding to the emerging issue of plastic pollution.

IGES Integrative Strategic Research Programme for the 9th Phase (ISRP9) begins in July 2025, and for the next four years, we will strive to take on challenges under a new research structure as a sustainability think-tank, leveraging our high-level and diverse expertise to create synergistic solutions along with cross-sectoral coordination and stakeholder engagement, as well as exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and innovative technologies in sustainability research.