Agricultural certification schemes are increasingly requiring concession holders to prevent deforestation when they develop plantations but do not sufficiently address forest restoration, which is necessary to prevent further biodiversity loss. This policy brief recommends, by focusing on palm oil, that agricultural certification schemes strengthen...
Few challenges pose a greater threat to a healthy planet and people than air pollution and climate change. Over the past three decades, research has demonstrated that integrated solutions to air pollution and climate change can yield co-benefits that support cost-effective, coherent policies. However, research on co-benefits has yet to generate...
Between the 1990s and early 2000s, large-scale illegal dumping and improper treatment of medical waste was a common occurrence in Japan, and became a serious social issue owing to the potential human health risk and environmental damage resulting from the waste itself, which could be infectious or contained sharps or chemical and toxic substances...
CONSERVATION, RESTORATION AND management of forest resources are critical for addressing climate change. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are a vehicle for targeted climate actions, including those related to forest management, by countries towards contributing global efforts agreed under the Paris Agreement. Operationalizing climate...
This article asks how to achieve food waste prevention in Asia from a governance perspective by looking at Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam as case studies. Aligning stakeholders behind preventive measures on food waste requires a context-appropriate mix of hierarchical, market, and network modes of governance. This article analyzes current food waste...
Intensifying ecological crises, such as climate change, the melting Arctic, and uncontrolled destruction of habitat and biodiversity, are increasingly exposing the shortcomings of resource-intensive development models. One of the concepts helping policymakers steer a course change is sustainable consumption production and consumption (SCP). A...
Japan has raised its climate ambition by declaring its commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and by setting a new target of reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 46% against 2013 levels by 2030. This chapter provides a perspective on how Japan’s ambition has evolved since 2015, in terms of domestic discourse, governance to...
Rapid population growth, urbanization, industrialization, and climate change are the key drivers causing serious water pollution around the globe. Considering the impacts of these key drivers, this study employed the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) simulation tool to simulate the future water quality in a nearly 60-km stretch of the Hau River...
温暖化に伴う水害の激甚化を受けて、地方自治体において防災・減災対策と適応策を統合し、適応能力と感受性により構成される脆弱性を低減させることが急務である。しかし、適応能力は多様な社会経済的な要素を含むため、政策上どの構成要素が重要であるかに関する包括的な検討は限定的である。そこで、本稿は、アンケート調査を実施し、地方自治体の現在の防災対策実施状況（ハード・ソフト・転換策の合計44対策）と各対策に関する将来の適応策の必要性認識に基づいて適応能力と感受性の構成要素の重要度を評価した。結果として、重要度が高く評価された適応能力要素は、地域コミュニティの「インフラ」（防災用）、「教育」（自主避難判断力、危険認知度）、「情報」（監視警戒力、情報伝達力）、「コミュニティガバナンス」（避難誘導力）、並びに...
This report analyses and compares the low carbon city policies and practices of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, with the goal of identifying sector-specific and city-specific good practices that may be instructive to researchers and policymakers in the wider NEA region. It examines key national-level carbon mitigation policies and sector...