EU-Japan Subnational Climate Action Workshop : Exchanges between Cities in Europe and Japan – Opportunities for a Resilient Future

The European Union (EU) and Japan announced a Green Alliance to accelerate their respective transition towards a climate-neutral, circular and resource-efficient economy over the coming decades. The alliance is the first of its kind for the EU and represents an important milestone for implementing the European Green Deal and Japan’s Green Growth Strategy. As part of the Green Alliance, the Delegation of the European Union to Japan (EUD) organised an event “EU-Japan Subnational Climate Action Workshop - Exchanges between cities’ in Europe and Japan – opportunities for a resilient future” in collaboration with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and the City of Yokohama.

In recent years, the EUD has facilitated annual events on climate action initiatives at subnational level in Japan. The first event, “EU-Japan Conference - Cities, regions, clusters: key actors for decarbonisation” was held in 2022. The topics discussed by cities included different themes from renewable energy, transportation, housing, construction, low-carbon agriculture, and tourism. The follow-up event held in 2023, "EU-Japan 100 Cities Event on Climate Actions" was more ambitious and aimed to create awareness of newly launched local initiatives towards decarbonisation in both Europe and Japan, namely the “EU mission” and “Regional Decarbonisation Roadmap”. Key topics discussed included energy security which was particularly relevant in the context managing the fallout from the war in Ukraine, the role of local decarbonisation in bolstering the local economy, the concept of smart cities, and financing strategies. The event also underscored the importance of incorporating gender perspectives and promoting city-to-city cooperation in climate actions. Furthermore, the event reiterated the pivotal role of local governments in integrating decarbonisation and resilience into urban planning processes, spanning from budget allocation to decision-making protocols. Key elements contributing to successful case studies included inclusive engagement of all stakeholders, forging partnerships with the private sector, and amplifying financial support for local decarbonisation initiatives.

Given the success of the previous events, the EUD continues to support these valuable exchanges between cities in the EU and Japan on local and regional climate action. The event was held on 29^th of May and online event on 30^th of May. The objective of the event was to share the progress made by cities since the launch of both initiatives and explore how the EU and Japan can further cooperate. Energy issues, financing strategies and citizen engagement are key topics in the agenda. The event aimed to share experiences of climate actions at local level, multi-level actions and collaboration, which was also highlighted in the recent G7 meetings and the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convent on Climate Change.

Both the EU and Japan recognised the importance of subnational climate actions in achieving their net-zero targets and in response provides financial and technical support to local and regional governments. In April 2022, the EU Mission selected 100 smart and carbon-neutral cities in EU regions and 12 cities from associated countries. The European Climate Pact is an important initiative aiming to meet the EU’s carbon neutral goal by 2050 by facilitating climate actions by people, communities and organisations.

In Japan, the “Regional Decarbonisation Roadmap (RDR)” was formulated in 2021 in collaboration with national and subnational governments and set a target to create more than 100 Decarbonisation Leading Areas (DLAs) by 2030. By the end of December 2023, 74 DLAs are selected, which covers 95 municipal governments covering 36 prefectures.

※This activity is part of the European Union Climate Dialogues Project (EUCDs).