High Level Talks on City-to-City Collaborations towards Zero Carbon Kuala Lumpur

Acting as the proxy for Mayor Kamarulzaman, Ms. Fajariah thanked the City of Saitama and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for their past cooperation. She stated Kuala Lumpur’s target to become a smart and carbon neutral city by 2050. She also welcomed the continuation of their partnership together.

Mr. Matsuzawa stressed the important role of cities in combating climate change. He introduced two projects supported by the Ministry of Environment Japan: the 100 Leading Decarbonization Areas in Japan, and the City-to-City Collaboration Programme for Zero Carbon Society. The latter facilitates Japanese muncipalities’ collaboration with municipalities located outside Japan, and to which the City of KL and Iskandar Malaysia are participants. It serves as an important pillar for the Ministry’s other program, the Clean Cities Partnership Programme (C2P2), which comprehensively addresses urban issues. He expressed hopes for good results from the sharing of knowledge between Saitama City, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Kuala Lumpur City.

Ambassador Takahashi called on Kuala Lumpur City to actively utilise the decarbonization-related case studies presented by Saitama City Mayor Shimizu (in his keynote speech) and those of Tokyo. Last year, which was the 40th anniversary of the Look East Policy, 'decarbonization' was highlighted as one of the promising themes for bilateral cooperation. He expressed his hope that the three-city partnership would be a driving force for bilateral cooperation in sectors associated with 'decarbonization'.

Mayor Shimizu referred to the G7 communiqué which recognized the 'transformative power of cities' and stressed the role of cities was becoming even more important than ever. Several of Saitama City’s best practices were introduced. The features of Saitama’s 'smart home community', a group of high-performance houses that combine a complex of technological solutions, was described. Next, he presented a good practice for a circular economy, which uses the thermal energy of waste incinerators to power waste collection trucks. He then introduced Saitama’s efforts to become a walkable city: a sharing service for electric bicycles and EVs that connects the last mile from the nearest train station in the city to the home.

Dato Hamzah stated that there had been many enquiries to SEDA since the release of the Malaysia Renewable Energy Roadmap. This indicates a high level of interest for renewable in Malaysia, he said. The Malaysian Government has stated that it will gradually increase the share of renewable energy in its energy mix. He also added that expectations for Malaysia's renewable energy market seem to have been heightened by the size of the RE market and the overview presented in IRENA's Malaysia Energy Transition Outlook (published in March this year).

Mr. Faizal highlighted KL City Hall and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s achievement of being the joint recipient of the C40 Cities Bloomberg Philanthropies Awards for climate change action. He expressed hopes that the collaboration with Saitama City would allow KL City Hall to acquire new knowledge on microgrid related technology and skills for bonsai trees. He also highlighted how KL City Hall has taken the lead in implementing activities that lead to decarbonization at the Wangsa Maju Carbon Neutral Growth Centre, such as the installation of solar PV in public facilities, promoting and educating people about waste recycling activities, and the introduction of EV buses and car-free zones.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government's targets and actions towards decarbonization, as well as the collaboration with Kuala Lumpur City Hall to date, was shared by Ms. Chiba. She showed how the Tokyo Metropolitan Government had been diligently working towards the 2025 implementation of an ordinance requiring housebuilders and others supplying new housing to install solar PV on roofs and to improve thermal insulation. Tokyo Metropolitan Government is committed to working with Kuala Lumpur City Hall and Saitama City to further decarbonize their respective cities.

Mr. Ogawa shared the advantages of the high airtightness and thermal insulation methods, as well as those of wooden building materials that are the hallmarks of Takasago Construction's products. First, he explained that by improving airtightness and insulation, people can live with less energy consumption. Next, he explained that the use of domestic wooden building materials reduces carbon dioxide emissions compared to transporting them from overseas, and that they also have the function of maintaining forests by planting trees at the same time as cutting them down.

Dr. Fujino thanked Mayor Shimizu for his enthusiastic keynote speech and introduced the prestigious speakers for the session.

Ms. Sugawara expressed JICA’s appreciation to the University of Technology Malaysia who had been the key actors for developing the Low Carbon Society Blueprint for Iskandar Malaysia 2025 under the JICA-SATREPS project (implementation period 2011-2016). The blueprint now serves as a template for the Kuala Lumpur City’s version and the low carbon scenarios for other Malaysian cities, she said. JICA will support the Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change (NRECC) in its efforts for the 'Climate Action and Support Transparency’ in terms of human resource development, she explained.

With the Malaysian Government announcing a number of roadmaps to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, the country is seen as a promising market for decarbonization technologies and products, and interest in collaboration is growing in both Japan and Malaysia, leading to an increase in enquiries to JETRO. JETRO will provide support for individual matching and participation in business meetings in Japan.

As the collaboration between Kuala Lumpur City Hall, Saitama City and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government enters the implementation phase with the aim of introducing decarbonization technologies, JACTIM also expressed its intention to support the project by sharing information on the project with its member companies in the architecture and engineering sectors. He explained that E&E is a promising sector as an engine of growth in the country, as the Malaysian Government has released the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) and Hydrogen Economy and Technology Roadmap (HETR).

The framework for session 2 was explained by Mr. Chau. He indicated the speakers from JICA, JETRO and JACTIM would be speaking about their support measures and cooperation possibilities for carbon neutral-related projects in Malaysia and ASEAN.

Dr. Nakano thanked JICA, JETRO and JACTIM for sharing Malaysia's high commitment to carbon neutrality and for their strong willingness to cooperate.

Prof Ho thanked Kuala Lumpur Mayor and Kuala Lumpur officials for their work to date. Prof Ho indicated that they will continue to support the collaboration by expanding the scope of their activities and work together with Kuala Lumpur City Hall, other Asian cities and additional partners to achieve a decarbonized society by 2050.

Prof Takeuchi hailed the collaboration between Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and Saitama as a leading example in the world of delivering results for both climate change action and the SDGs. As the president of IGES, he pledged to continue to support the efforts of those who are raising ambition and promoting local climate action to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050.