JICA is committed to provide support for climate change that requires immediate action, to enhance the ability to cope with climate change, and to help achieving a sustainable society.
Objectives of JICA Global Agenda
JICA’s Global Agenda on Climate Change aims to contribute to the goals of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and building sustainable and resilient societies through strengthening capacity development of partner countries to respond to climate change, and promoting co-benefit that pursue both development issues and climate change measures.
Background and Challenges
(1) Climate Change Challenges
Climate change is a threat to sustainable development and human security in all countries of the world. The entire planet is warming, and the intensity and frequency of climatic and meteorological events such as extreme temperatures, intense rainfall events, droughts and precipitation shortages are changing. These events are expected to have various impacts on 1) terrestrial and marine ecosystems, 2) water resources and aquatic environments, 3) agriculture and food, 4) cities, settlements, and infrastructure, 5) health and welfare, and 6) poverty and livelihoods, etc., requiring early measures and responses. In particular, many developing countries are vulnerable to climate change and are unable to take sufficient measures to avoid or mitigate the impacts, which is expected to have a significant social and economic impact.
The period up to 2030 is an important time for shaping the direction for effective adaptation and reduction of climate risks in the 21st century and beyond. To protect human life and property from the negative impacts of climate change in the future and to achieve sustainable economic and social development, both developed and developing countries should implement mitigation measures (such as GHG emission reduction and absorption enhancement) in all development projects especially in the fields of energy, transportation, and forest conservation. It is important to develop mutually complementary strategies to reduce and manage the risks of climate change by implemeting mitigation measures and planning for adaptation measures (measures to avoid or reduce the damage caused by projected climate change), especially in the disaster prevention, water resources, and agriculture sectors.
(2) Significance of Japan and JICA's Efforts
Climate change is a global challenge that can only be solved through technological innovation and socioeconomic reform. Japan has pledged up to $10 billion in additional support for climate change, doubling its support for adaptation and increasing support for the forestry sector. Climate change is expected to have a significant impact on vulnerable societies, both from a development and human security perspective. Japan is working with developing countries to realize development pathways that balance these two themes by integrating climate change measures into development solutions. This will contribute to building a sustainable and resilient international society.
Similarly at COP28, Japan has announced the launch of “Japan’s Assistance Package to Promote Investments for Global Actions Toward the Achievement of the Paris Agreement Goals” to dedicate efforts to resolving the three gaps: "ambition gap", "adaptation gap" and "implementation gap".
The package includes efforts which are related to JICA projects, such as realization of decarbonization domino-effect through city-to-city collaboration, human resource development for climate change, ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction, JICA Clean City Initiative (JCCI) and co-benefits-based climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.
Focus Areas
1) "Promote the implementation of the Paris Agreement"
Under the Paris Agreement, all parties, whether developed or developing countries, are required to take various measures, including mitigation and adaptation measures, such as formulation/revision of NDC, establishment of national adaptation plans and systems, and submission of "biennial transparency reports" including GHG inventories and NDC progress. However, developing country governments do not have sufficient financial resources, technological expertise, knowledge, and other capacities to implement these measures on their own, and they need support from the international community to improve response capacities and promote climate change measures in line with the Paris Agreement.
By 2030, the number of countries supported in developing/updating and implementing various climate change action plans (at least 10 countries)
Number of human resources trained (more than 20,000).
2) "Co-benefits of climate change"
In developing countries where social and economic infrastructures are weak and basic needs are not met, it is difficult to take measures to mitigate risks based on a long-term outlook. Under these circumstances, in order to promote efforts to address climate change in developing countries, we will actively promote co-benefits (co-benefits) that contribute to climate change countermeasures (climate benefits) as well as solutions to various development issues (development benefits), and maximize synergetic effects and minimize potential tradeoffs between climate change countermeasures and development issues.
Number of projects that promote co-benefit measures by 2030, utilizing climate change action support tools (1000 or more projects)
Doubling of GHG emission reductions by 2030 (4 million CO2 equivalent tons/year)
Doubling of contributions to adaptation measures by 2030
Project scale of climate change measures by 2025: 1 trillion yen/year
Beneficiary population (380 million people)
News
Related
JICA Climate Finance Impact Tool (Climate-FIT)
Video
- JICA's Support to Address Climate Change in Thailand (youtube.com)
- JICA Executive Senior Vice president YAMADA's Video Message for "COP 26"
- JICA’s Efforts to Address Climate Change
- JICA's Contributions to the Global Fight Against Climate Change (Short ver. :approx. 11 min)
- JICA's Contributions to the Global Fight Against Climate Change (Long ver. :approx. 28 min)
Links
Policy Briefing
- https://www.jica.go.jp/Resource/activities/issues/climate/ku57pq00002cucus-att/policybrief_01_ndc_implementation.pdf
- https://www.jica.go.jp/Resource/activities/issues/climate/ku57pq00002cucus-att/policybrief_02_municipal_level_climate_actions.pdf
- https://www.jica.go.jp/Resource/activities/issues/climate/ku57pq00002cucus-att/policybrief_03_challenge_of_megacity_against_climate_change_countermeasures.pdf
- https://www.jica.go.jp/Resource/activities/issues/climate/ku57pq00002cucus-att/policybrief_04_enhancing_governance_through_support_for_transparency.pdf
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Policy Briefing of JCCRS: JICA’s Co-Benefits Approach to Climate Change for Climate Resilient and Sustainable Development (2024.03.05)
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