Activities and Events

This event has now taken place.  A summary is below.

On November 22 JLGC held our annual JLGC Seminar online, which this year looked at collaborative actions to promote carbon neutrality among local and regional governments in Japan and the UK.  This followed our Japan Study Tour earlier this year to Tokyo and Kagoshima, where participants from across UK local government were able to see decarbonisation efforts of Japanese local governments in situ.

After our Director General Akira Matsutani opened the event by setting out the parameters and context of the decarbonisation challenge in Japan, Toshifumi Fukuyasa of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Environment spoke on the role of mandating photovoltaic power systems in new developments in the capital, while Shuhei Sato of the “Machigoto Ecotown” Promotion Section of the Tokorozawa City Government outlined how it intends to become a Zero Carbon City by 2050 through the promotion of renewable energy and ‘smart houses’.

We then convened a panel discussion between a range of UK partner organisations to examine how their counterparts in British cities also address the challenges of decarbonisation. Will Mapplebeck at Core Cities UK (a participant on our 2023 Japan Study Tour) spoke on how UK cities are utilising the 3Ci (Cities Commission for Climate Investment) platform to collaborate and innovate around climate finance, while Conor Carey of London & Partners addressed the role of international cooperation between the two capitals’ startup ecosystems in promoting sustainable business growth, particularly the upcoming ‘SusHi-Tech’ innovation summit being held in Tokyo over April-May 2024. Nick Porter of the Local Government Association was able to detail its own international work looking at benchmarking local climate actions and the innovative work taking place in English local councils, while Sean Owen outlined how the Greater Manchester Combined Authority is engaged around the low carbon agenda for the city region, not least the upcoming delegation to Tokyo and Osaka being led by Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and UK-Japan Trade Envoy Greg Clark MP in December 2023.

The Seminar was moderated by Heather Jameson, Editor of The Municipal Journal.