Japan’s committment to fight climate issues
Japan greatly appreciates the role of Fiji in leading the Pacific Island Countries’ fight against climate change. Fiji’s Presidency of COP23 and the first ever Ocean’s Summit in 2017, put into global spotlight the plight of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), who are at the forefront of suffering from the impact of climate change. Regarding Fiji’s commitment, Fiji created history by becoming the 7th country in the world and the 1st SIDS to pass the Climate Change Act in 2021, with a clear commitment to the Paris Agreement, inclusive of a net-zero emissions goal.
Japan also takes the lead in fostering global momentum to address climate change to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. Japan has been actively supporting developing countries in the field of climate change. Our commitment to provide climate finance both public and private to further enhance the assistance for adaptation stands out as a sizeable amount among other developed countries.
On 2 November 2021, Prime Minister Kishida attended the World Leaders Summit, which is a summit-level meeting of the COP26 (26th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change) at Glasgow, United Kingdom and stated his own determination that Japan will be working in full force to take on climate change, a common challenge of humankind. In addition, in order to lead the initiative in fulfilling the goal of climate finance that developed countries are collectively committed to the 100 billion USD per year, he announced four new commitments of Japan below.
(1) Developing leading projects worth 100 million USD to transform fossil-fuel-fired thermal power into zero-emission thermal power, through the Asia Energy Transition Initiative, maximizing the introduction of renewable energy.
(2) Providing up to 10 billion USD in the coming five years, which would include our contribution to the launch of Innovative Financial Facility for Climate to support the decarbonization of Asia and beyond, in addition
I have come all the way to Glasgow to convey my own determination that Japan will be working in full force to take on climate change, a common challenge of humankind. KISHIDI Fumio Prime Minister of Japan
to Japan’s contribution to provide support worth 60 billion USD that Japan announced last June, in order to lead the initiative in fulfilling the financial goal of climate finance that developed countries are collectively committed to the 100 billion USD per year.
(3) Doubling Japan’s assistance for adaptation to climate change to approximately 14.8 billion USD, both in public and private finance, in the five years to 2025.
(4) Providing financial assistance worth approximately 240 million USD for the forest sector.
In the Pacific region, in cooperation with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), Japan has been promoting efforts to develop human resources involved in climate change countermeasures, and has developed various initiatives throughout the region. In Fiji, the Project for Reinforcing Meteorological Training Function of Fiji Meteorological Service and the Project for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction are some of the examples of Japan’s climate-related support.