Decarbonization with Yokohama’s Citizen Empowerment
(Presentation Transcript)
Thank you very much, Honorable Chair. Your Holiness Pope Francis, Mayors and Governors, Ladies and Gentlemen, good afternoon. It is my great honor to join this conference, and to share the initiatives of our city, Yokohama, which is the largest city (municipality) in Japan.
My message today is simple: Citizen empowerment and City government’s convening power. These two are important for Societal Transformation raised in the protocol.
Firstly, let me give you an example of how Yokohama is successful in empowering nearly 4 million citizens. Between 2001 and 2010, our city succeeded in reducing “household waste” by 43%, by almost half, despite the population growth. This tremendous reduction of waste, followed by the reduction of CO2, was achieved by applying new waste separation. How did we succeed in applying this complex way of separation? The solution was partnering with citizen empowerment.
In our city, “neighborhood volunteer-clubs” are very active to improve their communities. For example, they engage in voluntary activities for each residential area, such as safety patrol for kids, daily cleaning of streets & parks, etc. There are more than 2,800 volunteer-clubs, and we understand the city is supported “on volunteer-club basis” substantially. The neighborhood clubs are also the pivotal driving force for waste management. In fact, the volunteer-clubs are well-motivated and they participate in cleaning and managing of 75,000 waste collection points across Yokohama. City government, on the other hand, hosted 15,000 workshops for residents on how to separate household waste in collaboration with volunteer-clubs. The combination of the community power and the government passion like this enabled a behavioral change of residents, resulting in reducing waste by almost half.
Currently, we have introduced more detailed separation of plastic waste in order to increase plastic-product recycling. This new way of separation will contribute to 15% CO2 decrease from “plastic incineration” by next year. We are now reducing CO2 from plastic-product quickly, by borrowing citizen empowerment AGAIN.
I believe that empowering citizens is the key to “Societal Transformation with Behavioral Change” toward carbon neutrality.
Next, let’s take a look at how City Government is working with business sectors. Firstly, let me introduce our initiatives on the Center of Yokohama, named MM21 District. The MM21 district is the cluster of large companies, with about 200-hectare, 130,000 working population, and 80 million annual visitors. Notably, it accounts for 10% of business sector’s energy consumption in the city. We are now expecting 100% decarbonization of this district in upcoming five years, by working aggressively with the business sector here. In five years, this district is going to be a unique model in the world on the complete decarbonization of urban area. This is a selected good story, but the reality is, we have to tackle on SMEs urgently.
Seventy per cent of Emissions come from businesses. And 99% of businesses is SMEs, but 60% of them is still not doing climate change actions. This is because SMEs are challenged by their limited expertise and limited funding for decarbonization. So, there is urgent need to boost a large number of SMEs to action.
Here is where the City Government steps in. The current fraction of SMEs with climate change action remains at 40%. We are boosting this fraction to 60% in two years. This corresponds to a 20% increase in two years, which needs 14,000 companies. We are dispatching city officers to SMEs in order to provide city-involved support. The menu of the city-involved support is we (1) publicize registered companies, (2) prioritize in City biddings, (3) provide energy diagnosis followed by detailed consultation, and (5) provide capex subsidy for capital investment. Through sure and steady efforts like this, we are seeking to have most SMEs join in the climate change action by 2027. I believe City Government has convening power to bring SMEs together to GO GREEN.
Lastly, I will talk about partnering with Asian Cities. For over ten years, Yokohama has established partnerships with Asian Cities. For example, we are supporting them to formulate climate change action plans. Also, environmental technologies are being introduced in those cities. As just one example of our support, let me show you the case of Mandaue in Metro Cebu, Philippines. “Final waste disposal” has been a significant challenge for Mandaue City. Yokohama has continuously provided expertise that helped Mandaue to increase “waste separation” and “plastic recycling”. As a result, annual waste was reduced by over 4,500 tons in year 2023, enabling around 3,000 ton decrease in carbon emissions. After these initiatives in Asia, last November, representatives from 44 cities and governmental organizations across Asia gathered in Yokohama: Mayors, Governors, City Officers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, etc. gathered in Yokohama, and issued Yokohama Declaration toward Carbon-Neutrality with them. Following this Declaration, Yokohama and Bangkok will host a climate change workshop in Bangkok next month. We will continue to lead Asia on the way to zero carbon society.
Finally, let me finish my talk by reaffirming Yokohama’s commitment to achieving inclusive growth for the well-being of all people around the world. Thank you.