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The 2021 High-level Political Forum (HLPF) consolidated the prime role of VLRs (Voluntary Local Reviews) in localizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A record number of local governments – 17 cites –presented a 2021 VLR by July 2021 according to UN-Habitat. By comparison, 26 VLRs were published in 2020. VLRs have also gained broader...

Japan’s severe population decline is seriously threatening the sustainability of many of the country’s municipalities. In a desperate run for survival, all levels of government have hurried to apply strategies aiming at stopping decay and the development of new infrastructure is met with particularly high expectations for new prosperity. That is...

The global population is concentrating unprecedentedly into urban areas, raising concerns on global sustainability and human well-being. There also exists a niche trend of migration from urban to rural areas particularly in countries with post-industrial economies. This paper investigated values of migration expressed by the migrants arrived in...

This study assesses qualitative and quantitative changes in groundwater resources and their impact on land subsidence in Can Tho, Vietnam, from 2000 to 2018. Can Tho city is characterized by scarce water resources and intense industrial, domestic, agricultural, and mining usage, creating water stress. The vertical compaction rates and thus land...

This Policy Report forms part of the output from the project: "‘Closing the Loop: Innovation and Scaling Up to Solve the Problem of Plastic Pollution in Marine Areas in ASEAN Cities", supported by the Government of Japan. The report provides scientific-based evidence on the status of plastic pollution in Da Nang, in order to guide the development...

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...

The world's major investors, banks and other financial institutions are taking note of the upcoming 26 th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be held in November 2021, and they are committing to take actions in line with the Paris Agreement on Net Zero. At the...

The Integrative Strategic Research Programme for the 8th Phase (ISRP8) is a four-year programme for IGES to implement from July 2021 to June 2025. It was initiated by an internal process within IGES in February 2020 and developed through deliberations by the IGES Boards of Directors and Trustees (BOD/BOT) in 2020-2021. A draft of the Major...

Source separation plays a pivotal role in sustainable and integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) and in achieving a circular economy in Asia. However, it is still not an official practice, and many cities continue to utilise open dumping, involving receiving mixed waste without pre-treatment. This paper, therefore, examines the...

With the increasing spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, restrictions on public life were strengthened across the world. Non-pharmaceutical interventions like stay-at-home orders, cancellations of events, work from home, etc. are the first line of defense to combat the spread of highly transmittable infections like Covid-19. But these interventions...