Regions/Provinces/States
Kyoto Prefecture—Kyoto Prefecture is where the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty was developed at The 3rd Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP3), serving as an effective means to promote global warming countermeasures. The treaty introduced trade emission allowances among advanced nations and emissions trading between advanced countries and developing countries. In October 2011, the Kyoto Prefecture Global Warming Countermeasures Ordinance was enacted, and it started the “Kyoto CO2 Emissions Trading System” in cooperation with the government, economic groups, environmental NPOs.
The system aims to create credits, called “credits unique to Kyoto: Kyo-VER” from energy-saving countermeasures at small and midsize corporations, forest maintenance work conducted by companies and NPOs, eco-activities by Kyoto residents, and local communities. It also promotes the reduction in total GHG emissions in the Kyoto Prefecture. Meanwhile, it minimizes the total cost to society by establishing a mechanism to enable businesses with large volumes of emissions to utilize credits to achieve targets of GHG gas emissions reduction plans based on Kyoto Prefecture and Kyoto City Global Warming Countermeasure Ordinances and to take advantage of them for carbon offsets, CSR activities, etc.
The system is also a platform that creates and utilizes diverse credits adapted to industrial structures and local characteristics of Kyoto including “credits unique to Kyoto”, supplementing the J-Credit Scheme and other emissions trading systems by different entities. A total of 145 cases or 5584.5t-CO2 credits have been created thus far, and they have been utilized to achieve corporate GHG emissions reduction targets and offsetting GHG gases emitted from the printing of printed matter. In 2014, it helped decrease its amount of CO2 by 15% from the reference year 1990.
Contact
Department of the Environment, Global warming Countermeasures Division
Telephone: 81 – 75 – 414 – 4830
Email: tikyu@pref.kyoto.lg.jp
Cities
Toyota City—Toyota City (Aichi Prefecture) is aiming to transform from an automotive city to one of the world’s leading eco-conscious cities. This is where everyone can live a comfortable life at his or her own pace in a low-carbon society while taking into account a reduction of wasteful consumption. To this end, the city has strived to encourage the spread of Smart Houses as a part of its initiatives.
Toyota City is the first city in Japan that introduced the Smart House Tax Break system. A discount of one-half of the municipal real-estate tax on buildings will be given to residents who build new Smart Houses which are fully equipped with solar power generation panels, home energy management systems (HEMS), and storage batteries, or who install these systems and devices in their current dwellings. In addition, the city provides special subsidies through the “Eco-Family Support Subsidy Program” to assist households with installing home solar power generation systems, home fuel battery systems, HEMS and home lithium-ion storage battery systems.
It also established “the Center for Renewable Energy in Toyota City”, which has encouraged citizens and companies to install facilities run by renewable energy. In addition, it held a “High Level Symposium regarding Sustainable Cities” associated with the United Nations in 2014 and is constructing a global network of innovative environmental cities.
Contact
Model Environment City Promotion Division, Planning Department
Telephone: +81 – 565 – 34 – 6982
Email: hybrid-city@city.toyota.aichi.jp
Yokohama—In 2010, Yokohama City was nominated as one of the ‘Next-generation Energy and Social Systems Demonstration Areas’ by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Since then, the city has been promoting the Yokohama Smart City Project (YSCP) demonstration projects. In cooperation with Japan’s 34 leading companies in the fields of energy, electronics, and construction businesses, Yokohama City has introduced a system to optimize the energy supply-demand balance in existing city areas with houses and commercial buildings. Through this project, the city had set target numbers for HEMS adoption, solar panels, and electric vehicles and achieved these targets by FY2013. From now on, the YSCP will be updated from the demonstration stage to the implementation stage. It was able to help decrease the amount of greenhouse gas by 2.8% from previous year, and by 5.9% from the reference year 2005.
Contact
Climate Change Policy Headquarters, Coordination Division
Telephone: +81 – 45 – 671 – 2661
Email: on-chosei@city.yokohama.jp