Global Environment Centre Foundation (GEC) engages in a wide range of activities to promote projects for conserving the global environment through international cooperation, including technical assistance to developing countries, addressing climate change mitigation and international training, as well as helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015, and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the Paris Agreement.
To support activities of the United Nations Environment Programme International Environmental Technology Centre (UNEP-IETC), which is also an objective of GEC’s establishment, GEC hosted the UNEP-IETC 30th Anniversary Commemorative Event in FY2022, along with related communication events and workshops, in cooperation with the City of Osaka. In addition, we have worked to expand UNEP Sustainability Action, a cross-sectoral platform of the United Nations, government, business, and citizens, both domestically and internationally. GEC will continue actively to develop collaborative support for UNEP-IETC, including through the development of a key strategy to address plastic pollution, which is one of the most pressing issues facing our planet.
Elsewhere in the field of international cooperation, we continued our projects from FY2021 in support of market opportunities in Asia, including Support for Digitisation of Regional Industry, Promotion of the Water Environment Business, and Seeds and Needs Surveys for Environmental and Energy Technologies, and the related Promotion and Public Awareness-raising Activities. We will continue to support national and local governments in promoting their key environmental policies.
With regard to climate action, the 2050 Carbon Neutral declaration, approved at a Cabinet meeting in October 2021, effectively modified the existing plan including for the purpose of achieving the 46% reduction target by FY2030. Under the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), implemented in coordination with developing countries, Japan has been promoting initiatives to share credits for reducing GHGs with partner countries through bilateral climate action projects, which is acclaimed as a model of the cooperative approaches set forth in Article 6 (2) of the Paris Agreement.
As a way of promoting JCM, GEC is supporting climate action overseas through active implementation of various JCM-related projects. Continuing from FY2021, we acted as an implementing organisation of the Financing Programme for JCM Model Projects and a demonstration project to produce green hydrogen in renewable energy-rich third countries and promote its transport to, and utilisation in small island countries in particular. We have also been taking action to support a series of JCM procedures, ranging from registration as JCM projects to credit issuance, for model projects that commenced operation following the completion of the financing programme.
In addition to the continuing threat of Covid-19, the world is experiencing increasingly frequent weather events reportedly as a result of global warming, such as localised torrential rains and powerful storms, as well as emerging environment and human rights issues including from resource extraction. Consistent efforts to reduce GHGs are indispensable if we are to avoid the most serious consequences such as food crises and devastating natural disasters. GEC will thus play an even more important role going forward.
GEC remains strongly committed to helping achieve the SDGs and the global warming agenda under the Paris Agreement, working with relevant organisations with heightened awareness of global trends and leveraging our expertise and networks both in Japan and overseas.
We would appreciate your continued understanding and support for our activities.
July 2023
SUZUKI Naoshi
President
Global Environment Centre Foundation
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