The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has selected Kitakyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture as the first green growth model city in Asia for policy assessment, according to the Mainichi.
Under the programme, the OECD will send a survey mission to Kitakyushu, southwestern Japan, to analyze and assess the municipality’s economic growth and environmental policies with a view to making a policy assessment report by the first half of 2013. The report will then be distributed to the 34 OECD member countries and used by their central and local governments in developing economic growth strategies consistent with environmental policies.
“The OECD has paid attention to Kitakyushu as a city that has overcome pollution problems,” OECD Tokyo Centre head Yoshie Nakatani told the press conference to announce the selection in the city. “As indicated by a recent eco-town project and the like, it is a city that makes the most advanced efforts in Asia on environment conservation.”
Kitakyushu Mayor Kenji Kitahashi told the same conference, welcoming the selection, “The international organization’s objective assessment for global information will be encouraging for the city that is aspiring to become the world’s environmental capital.”
Kitakyushu, formed in 1963 from the merger of five municipalities (Moji, Kokura, Tobata, Yahata and Wakamatsu), is the fourth city selected for the OECD’s Green Cities Program, following Paris, Chicago and Stockholm.
For more information please see the City of Kitakyushu’s website and the Kitakysuhu Asian Centre for Low Carbon Society.
