Achieving Carbon Neutrality in Cities

Seminar



    2021-10-19 09:30 - 11:00

 



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2021-10-19 09:30 - 11:00

Cities, which account for two-thirds of energy consumption and generate 70% of greenhouse gas emissions, play a critical role in global decarbonisation. Since 2020, 733 cities participated in the Race to Zero, a global campaign to commit zero carbon emissions by 2050, and more cities are setting the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 even before the national governments set the zero-carbon target.

At regional and national level, initiatives to encourage and support forerunner cities have been launched/planned, such as European Union’s “100 climate neutral cities by 2030” and “100 leading decarbonisation regions” in the Roadmap for Local Decarbonisation of Japan formulated in June 2021. On the other hand, cities have to make rapid and far-reaching transitions in various aspects to achieve zero-carbon goal, and the task is not easy for many cities.

This webinar organised as a part of the International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) aims to share how cities try to transform themselves to zero-carbon and discuss how city and regional cooperation can help to help cities to achieve the ambitious goal.

Agenda

Time Programme
9:30 am (CET)

4:30 pm (JST)

Opening Remarks (EUD)

Michel Mouchiroud, Delegation of the EU to Thailand

9:35 am (CET)

4:35 pm (JST)

Background to the webinar

Prof. Hidefumi Imura, IURC Asia-Australasia

9:40 am (CET)

4:40 pm (JST)

Setting the scene: zero carbon movement- International Trend and multi-governance in Japan

Mr. Togo Uchida, Executive Director, ICLEI-Japan

9:55 am (CET)

4:55 pm (JST)

City Panel – actions, challenges, and opportunities of mutual learning

  • Mr. Sean Owen, Head of Low Carbon,
    Greater Manchester Combined Authority, United Kingdom.
  • Ms. IHARA Yuko, Director for Environmental Policy, Environment Bureau, Osaka City Government, Japan
  • Mr. Thomas Jacob (*) and Ms. Brigitte Köhnlein(**)

(*) Head of International Projects, Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

(**) Deputy Head, Hamburg Ministry for Environment, Climate, Energy and Agriculture

  • Ms. Annika Dalén, Strategic Development and Gender Equality Officer, Municipality of Umeå, Sweden
  • Mr. Boyd D Jouman, Director - Climate, Energy & Resilient Environments, Borneo Organisation Ltd., Malaysia

Moderator: Yatsuka Kataoka, IGES/IURC-Japan

10:55 am (CET)

5:55 pm (JST)

Summary, next steps and closing remarks

Pablo Gándara, Team Leader, IURC Asia-Australasia

11:00 am (CET)

6:00 pm (JST)

Closure of Meeting

 

Read the highlights here.