International Symposium: Cities and Carbon Management: Towards Enhancing Science-Policy Linkages

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• 
  Global Carbon Project
  National Institute for Environmental Studies
• 
  Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science
  University of Tokyo

How successfully do cities respond to the carbon mitigation needs will determine the success of the global carbon　mitigation. IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2008 estimates cities’ global energy and energy-related CO2 emission contributions to 67% and 71% respectively. We already know a lot about cities, carbon flows in cities and their management despite that the understanding at multiple system boundaries and agglomeration is weaker. Many city governments have already started to act to mitigate carbon.

From research viewpoints, urban area or city is an open and complex system; therefore urban carbon management is bound to be complex. Methods, knowledge-base and data for urban/city carbon accounting and carbon management remain hindrances in many cities but progresses are being made. At one hand, urban researchers wish that cities are not unnecessarily blamed for large emissions and, on other hand they may recognize that cities’ current management approaches are narrower. They need to tackle activities beyond their physical boundaries (such as consumption and others) and optimize urban system as a whole. In addition, scientists/researchers are unaware of what kind of science and how science can help decision makers to make right decisions.

City decision makers often do not know if their actions are enough and correct for long term climate stabilization goals. City governments seek to know the limitations of alternative ways of inventorying carbon and other greenhouse gases and the impacts and effectiveness of their policy approaches. They like to see a standard way of emission reporting system (agreed protocol) for cities as well as to confirm the boundaries of activities that they should/could made influence, among others. Decision makers often want researchers to clarify key scientific and methodological questions and bridge the knowledge gaps for them to make right decisions.

However, science and policies are not completely detached. A close linkage exists in many cases which require to be strengthened at multiple scales. In addition, a number of organizations are assisting for better science policy linkages. Therefore, this event is aimed to serve as a forum to discuss science-policy linkages and how such linkages can be enhanced. It brings together the well-established scientists/researchers, the city decision makers that are actively pursuing carbon management and the facilitators that are helping for science-policy bridging. The ultimate aim of the symposium is to promote a better science policy dialogue that all three communities can benefit from.

Dr. Keisuke Hanaki is Adjunct Professor at Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S) and Professor at the Department of Urban Engineering, the University of Tokyo.

After completing his doctoral program at the University of Tokyo in 1980, he has worked at Tohoku University, the Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand) and the University of Tokyo. In addition to water environmental management, his research field covers holistic environmental management in urban areas for sustainability, integrated analysis of emissions reduction of greenhouse gases from urban activity, mitigation of urban heat island, solid waste and wastewater management for lower environmental loading, and clean development mechanisms in urban areas.

He was a lead author of the water chapter of IPCC’s 2nd and 3rd assessment reports. He received academic prizes from Japan Society on Water Environment and the Society of Environment Science, Japan.

Professor Shinichiro Ohgaki has received his doctoral degree in Urban Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1974. Throughout his career he specialized in urban environmental engineering, water resources engineering and water environmental engineering.

He is now the President of the National Institute for Environmental Studies and the Vice President of the Science Council of Japan. During his rich professional career he has worked at the Department of Civil Engineering of Tohoku University, the Environmental Engineering Division of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok, and the Department of Urban Engineering of the University of Tokyo. He has also served as the Director of the Research Center for Water Environment Technology, a member of the Board of Trustees of AIT, the Vice President of the International Water Association (IWA) and the Dean of the University of Tokyo’s School of Engineering.

His many research papers have been published in Water Research, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Water Science and Technology, Ambio and other journals and books. His work won him a publication award from the Japan Water Works Association, and scientific and society awards from the Japan Society on Water Environment.

Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal is one of the two Executive Directors of the Global Carbon Project. In addition to overall program management and support to global carbon cycle research and coordination, he also leads the Urban and Regional Carbon Management initiative. His expertise is on direct and embodied urban energy use and urban carbon emissions quantifications (including key sectors), modeling, policy analyses, and cross-comparative studies.

He has over 30 scholarly publications. He has edited two special issues as guest editor in international journals, and is a member of the editorial advisory board of the International Energy Journal. He is a regular reviewer of a number of key international journals. He has made significant contributions to Global Energy assessment, Assessment Report on Cities and Climate Change, City Energy Modeling Group of International Energy Agency and Taskforce of Urban Development and Energy Efficiency of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

Dr. John Robinson is a professor at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, and the Department of Geography, at the University of British Columbia. He is currently directing research programs looking at the intersection of climate change mitigation, adaptation and sustainability; the use of visualization, modeling and citizen engagement to explore sustainable futures; and sustainable buildings and urban design. He is also leading programs on creating private/public/NGO and research sector partnerships for sustainability; as well as programs on the intersection of sustainability, social and technological change, behaviour change, and community engagement processes.

His major current project is trying to get the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) built and operating. Dr. Robinson is a member of the BC Climate Action Team, the BC Hydro External Advisory Committee on Electricity Conservation and Efficiency, and the Vancouver Climate Leadership Council. He is also on the Board of the Sustainable Cities Foundation and the Pembina Institute, a member of the Steering Group of HELIO International, and member of the Editorial Boards of the journals Integrated Assessment, Ecology and Society, Building Research and Information, and the Journal of Industrial Ecology. In 2008 Dr. Robinson was made a Fellow of the Trudeau Foundation. He is a member of the Program Committee for the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, and was a Lead Author in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) and the last three reports of the IPCC (1995, 2001, 2007).

Dr. Shuzo Nishioka is a Senior Visiting Researcher at the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) and Research Advisor to the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).

He graduated from the Faculty of Engineering (Control Theory), University of Tokyo in 1962. After 12 years engineering experience in Asahi Chemical Co. Ltd, he joined the National Institute for Environmental Studies of Japan. His research areas at NIES were regional and global environmental assessment and environmental policy. He served as a professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology and Keio University in 1997-2001. From 1988 he worked in IPCC Working group II as Vice Chair, coordinating lead authors in assessment methodology, and served also as review editor in the Asian chapter. He served as Executive Director of NIES between 2001 and 2007. During 2004 - 2009, he led a crucial policy related research of the Japan Low Carbon Society Project, to explore 70% GHG emissions reduction by 2050 in Japan, the result of which was well integrated into Japan’s long term GHG reduction target set in 2008. Now his work focuses on possible international collaboration among Asian countries towards low carbon development. Also, he works in the Secretariat of the worldwide LCS Research Network, which was launched at G8 Kobe Environment Ministers’ meeting in May 2008. He is a Member of the Central Council of Environment, and Co-Leader of Innovative Climate Model Project.

Dr. Galina Churkina is leading the Regional Ecosystem-Climate Modeling Group at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research in Germany. Her research focuses on carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles of land ecosystems, their responses to human management as well as their feedback with climate.

At present, she works towards estimating carbon storage and fluxes of human settlements as well as estimating the feedback between urbanization and climate. She developed a conceptual model of urban carbon cycle and did the first assessment of carbon density and storage in human settlements. Galina Churkina is the author of numerous scholarly works, recipient of national and international research grants, and a reviewer of multiple academic journals.

Dr. Yoshiki Yamagata was born in Tokyo and graduated from the University of Tokyo (new school on Macro-System Science) in 1985.

His research topics include: terrestrial ecosystem monitoring, land use modeling, and Urban & Regional Carbon Management (URCM). He received the 1st OZE PRIZE 1998 and has been involved in several international activities such as: Lead Author of IPCC Special Report on “Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF)”, Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) member of IHDP/Institutional Dimension of Global Environmental Change (IDGEC), ESSP/Global Carbon Project (GCP), and the Editorial Board of Elsevier journals of “Climate Policy”, “Environmental Science and Policy”, and “Applied Energy”.

Dr. Sebastian Carney is leader of mitigation research at the Centre for Urban and Regional Ecology (CURE) at the University of Manchester, UK. He specializes in low carbon city-regions. His research-work is entirely performed with policy makers. In one such case he is leading a project called EUCO2 where he is working with 18 European city-regions (including 9 capital cities e.g. Paris, Madrid, Stockholm) to form emissions inventories, energy futures and importantly energy plans that will lead to emissions reductions of at least 80%.

His stakeholder orientated work has won awards in Europe and, has been recognized as one of the top achievements from the National Environmental Research Council in the UK. He is also working with the British Consulate (China), Shanghai’s Development Council and the National Urban Planners Association of China to tailor the EUCO2 approach to City-Regions in China. His research has been extended and adopted in Sacramento, CA. He is currently co-lead editor for a World Bank report on Cities and Climate Change. He is Climate Change Advisor to the European Network of Regions (METREX, Secretariat Brussels). His research has led directly to a standard adopted by the EU Covenant of Mayors.

Dr. Hidefumi Imura is a professor of Environmental Systems Analysis and Planning at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Nagoya University. After he received his doctoral degree (1974) in Applied Physics at the University of Tokyo, he joined the Japan Environment Agency, and subsequently worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Yokohama Municipal Government. After 14 years of being engaged in environmental policymaking in national, international, and local institutions, Dr. Imura moved to Kyushu University in 1988, where he was a professor at the Institute of Environmental Systems until August 2000.

Since September 2000, he has been a professor at Nagoya University. Dr. Imura has a wide range of expertise covering domestic and international environmental policy issues, environmental technologies, economics, and information in Japan, China and East Asian countries. His research focuses on energy and material flow analysis of human activities in cities, life cycle assessment of civil infrastructures, and modeling of human and environmental interactions. He served as a lead author of Working Group III of the Third Assessment Report of IPCC.

Dr. Ramaswami is a full Professor of Environmental Engineering, and Director of the NSF-Sponsored $3.2M IGERT Program on Sustainable Urban Infrastructure at the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Denver. She received her BS in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and her MS and doctoral degree in civil and environmental engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Ramaswami’s research spans across environmental modeling, technology development for sustainability and integration of science and technology with policy and planning for real-world implementation in communities.

Dr. Ramaswami has led university research teams that received national awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation. She is a technical advisor to the city and county of Denver, conducting a greenhouse gas inventory and developing climate action plans for the city. She is also an expert advisor on developing greenhouse gas emissions inventory protocols for ICLEI. In 2008, Dr. Ramaswami was invited by the National Science Board to serve on the National Task force on Sustainable Energy. Dr. Ramaswami, along with her students, has had extensive experience working on GHG inventories and climate action planning with more than 10 cities in CO and nation-wide. This work in Colorado is already impacting approximately 1 million people statewide.

Dr. Stephen A. Hammer is the Director of the Urban Energy Program at Columbia University's Center for Energy, Marine Transportation and Public Policy, where he leads an interdisciplinary team conducting research on energy markets, technology, policy and regulation in cities. Dr. Hammer also teaches courses on energy policymaking in cities to graduate students at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. In January 2010, Dr. Hammer will leave Columbia to become Executive Director of the JUCCCE Energy Smart Cities Initiative, a program designed to provide training, technical assistance, and research support on energy efficiency and climate issues to cities in China. The program is an outgrowth of a program Dr. Hammer currently runs in partnership with the National Training Center for Mayors in China.

Dr. Hammer continues to play a coordinating role with the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN), an international consortium of academic researchers focused on the analysis of climate change as it relates to cities around the world. Dr. Hammer is also a member of New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s Energy Policy Task Force; a climate change policy advisor to the State of New York; and a consultant to the World Bank, where he works on a project exploring how to promote energy efficiency in developing country cities.

Dr. Hammer holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, a Master’s degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelors degree in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning from the University of California at Davis.

Dr. JoAnn Carmin is Associate Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research and teaching focus on civic engagement in environmental decision processes, and community, NGO, and government responses to critical issues and events such as the placement of potentially hazardous facilities, natural disasters, and climate impacts.

At present, she is conducting international comparative research on urban adaptation planning, including assessing the institutional and governance mechanisms that facilitate the mainstreaming and implementation of adaptation in cities. Professor Carmin is the author of numerous scholarly works, recipient of national research grants and awards, member of editorial boards of multiple academic journals and presses, and an elected officer of the Environment and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association.

Mr. Tetsuro Fujitsuka has 25 years of experience in policy making and development in the Japanese government. He joined the Ministry of Construction in 1987 as a technical official and worked in various departments in the areas of national development planning, river basin management, water resources development management, natural disaster prevention, water quality management and environment conservation. He also served as a diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has an experience of economical and technical cooperation for developing countries in Africa.

During the past 10 years, Mr. Fujitsuka has been in the Environment Agency/Ministry of the Environment and he has been working on basic environmental plan, pollution abatement program, life cycle assessment, green purchasing, eco-labelling, CSR, low pollution/energy efficient vehicle, water management, CDM and co-benefit approaches, etc. He joined numerous international conferences and workshops for environment management as well as technical assistant activities in developing countries. Recently he served in Indonesia as an environmental policy adviser of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and he joined the Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) as the Director of its Secretariat. Mr. Fujitsuka holds graduate and post graduate degrees in Civil Engineering from Gifu University. He is a Professional Engineer in Japan and an APEC Engineer. He is an acting member of the Japanese Society of Civil Engineering and the Japanese Geotechnical Society.

Mr. Marcus Lee currently works in the cities and climate change thematic area of the Urban Development Unit at the World Bank, where he has also worked on environment sector projects in a number of African countries. Before joining the Bank, Mr. Lee was a Programme Officer with the Division of Early Warning and Assessment at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya. At UNEP, he contributed to the efforts to strengthen the interface between science and policy, including implementation of the programme follow-up to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), and was closely involved in a number of international environmental assessments, such as the 4th Global Environment Outlook and the Global Deserts Outlook.

Prior to UNEP, Mr. Lee worked at the secretariat of the MA, where he coordinated the sub-global assessments on ecosystem services and human well-being, and co-edited the MA assessment volume on multi-scale assessments. He has also worked in the private sector in Malaysia and Singapore, and has a Master's degree in Economics from Yale.

Ms. Yuko Nishida is a Planner for the Policy Planning Division, Bureau of Environment, Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG). She is specialized in urban sustainable development issues, and is currently in charge of policy making regarding climate change.

Prior to her current position, she worked as an Urban Renewal Planner and Coordinator at the Bureau of Construction from 1983 to 1994. Also, she was a researcher at the Institute of in-house Training Institute of Tokyo Metropolitan Government from 1994 to 1998. She was also a visiting research associate at the United Nations University from 1996 to 1997. She has been in her current position at the Bureau of Environment since 1998. She received her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Dr. David Hutchinson worked as an architect and town planner before becoming interested in the way that cities use energy whilst teaching in the USA. In the early 1990s he was responsible for a European Union funded study of energy use in London, and then investigated hydrogen as a new clean fuel for cities under the Japanese WE-NET hydrogen research program. When the Greater London Authority was created in 2000, he set up and led the teams responsible for work on waste management, air quality, energy, and noise. He continued there until October 2009 as an advisor on water policy, whilst maintaining his interests in energy and air quality.

During the 1990s Dr. David Hutchinson undertook many studies of UK and European urban policy and practice for clients in Japan including Tokyo Metropolitan Government. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Governance Studies at Meiji University in Tokyo. He serves on the board of the National Energy Foundation and is also Deputy Chairman of the Sustainable Energy Academy, an NPO promoting energy efficiency in older houses.

Ms. Joyce Coffee, LEED AP, is Director of Project Development, Policy and Research, for Chicago’s Department of Environment. She is a member of the Chicago Climate Leader Group stewarding the administration and implementation of Chicago’s Climate Action Plan. In particular, she is leading both the Plan’s overall performance measurement effort and its climate change adaptation implementation. She is also leading a multi-stakeholder effort to create a Chicago Air Quality Agenda. As Director, she has developed the City’s water conservation, water quality, storm water management, Great Lakes, bird, and aquatic invasive species policies.

Ms. Coffee completed her Master’s Degree in Urban Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she focused on innovations in municipal service delivery. She holds undergraduate degrees in Biology, Environmental Studies and Asian Studies from Tufts University. She also attended the University of Hanoi, Vietnam under a Henry Luce Fund scholarship.

Ms. Coffee has worked on industrial environmental management and potable water projects in cities throughout the Asian region for the Unites States Agency for International Development and the World Bank. She is a member of the board of the Alliance for Water Efficiency.

Ms. Aisa Tobing got her first degree in City Planning from Bandung Institute of Technology and her Master’s Degree in City Planning (MCP) and International Development and Appropriate Technology (M.Sc.) from the University of Pennsylvania, USA.

She has been working in the public sector as a civil servant for Jakarta Capital City Government since 1977 and she is also a lecturer at Trisakti University, the largest private university in Jakarta. Before her current position as Governor expert staff, she was appointed to lead several agencies within the administration: she served as the Director of Jakarta Inter-municipal Cooperation Bureau where she was in charge of International Affairs; as well as the Director of ITC Management Office where she was in charge of Information Technology and Communication, and Head of Urban Governance Division, Jakarta Planning Board. Most of her time is dedicated to work on Urban and Environmental Management.

Ms. Mika Ohbayashi is the Director of Office Ecologist since July 2009. Before joining the organization, she worked for the UKFCO at the British Embassy in Japan as Advisor on Climate Change Projects and Policies for one year. She is one of the founders of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP), and served as Deputy Director for 8 years since its establishment in 2000. ISEP is a Japan based think-tank, established as an independent scientific institute, focusing on energy and environmental issues.

Ms. Ohbayashi started her carrier in the energy field by joining the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center in 1992, where she was in charge of energy/climate change issues and Asian nuclear policies.

She coordinated many international conferences, scientific study projects, and used her leadership skills to team up various networks, including national parliamentarians and local authorities, domestically and internationally aiming towards a sustainable energy use society.

She also served as SC member for REN21 and World Council for Renewable Energy from 2006 to 2008 just before joining the UK government.

Mr. Tetsuro Fujitsuka has 25 years of experience in policy making and development in the Japanese government. He joined the Ministry of Construction in 1987 as a technical official and worked in various departments in the areas of national development planning, river basin management, water resources development management, natural disaster prevention, water quality management and environment conservation. He also served as a diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has an experience of economical and technical cooperation for developing countries in Africa.

During the past 10 years, Mr. Fujitsuka has been in the Environment Agency/Ministry of the Environment and he has been working on basic environmental plan, pollution abatement program, life cycle assessment, green purchasing, eco-labelling, CSR, low pollution/energy efficient vehicle, water management, CDM and co-benefit approaches, etc. He joined numerous international conferences and workshops for environment management as well as technical assistant activities in developing countries. Recently he served in Indonesia as an environmental policy adviser of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and he joined the Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) as the Director of its Secretariat. Mr. Fujitsuka holds graduate and post graduate degrees in Civil Engineering from Gifu University. He is a Professional Engineer in Japan and an APEC Engineer. He is an acting member of the Japanese Society of Civil Engineering and the Japanese Geotechnical Society.

Mr. Hideyuki Mori is the Vice President of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).

He is a graduate of the School of Engineering, Kyoto University. He joined IGES in 2003. Prior to joining IGES, he served as Environment Specialist at the Asian Development Bank, Senior Environmental Coordinator of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees, Director of the Office of Research and Information at the Global Environment Issues Division of the Environment Agency of Japan (presently the Ministry of the Environment) and as Portfolio Manager of the Division of GEF at the United Nations Environment Programme. He has served as the Vice President of IGES since 2006.

Ms. Michie Kishigami is Director of ICLEI-Local governments for sustainability, Japan Office. She joined ICLEI in 2000 after 8 years of supporting various community revitalization and local capacity building projects at a private foundation in Japan.　The global activities of ICLEI are: Cities for Climate Protection Campaign to support climate actions of local governments, organization of international conferences and workshops, development of tools and advocacy work at COP events etc.

• The major projects of ICLEI Japan Office conducted so far are:
• Annual survey on local achievements for climate protection in Japan
• US-Japan Cities for Climate Protection Exchange & Research Program
• Voluntary Carbon Offset research and pilot project
• CDM for Local Governments research project

Ms. Kishigami holds a Master’s degree in Economics specialized in Development Economics from Hosei University, Japan, and is a lecturer at the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University.

Mr. KK Philip Kang is affiliated with the Energy Security Section, Environment and Development Division at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, where he has served for more than five years. His portfolio includes energy security, bio-energy and energy efficiency as they relate to socio-economic development issues. He has been working on energy efficiency issues with a particular interest in institutional capacity and sustainable energy systems in city environments. He has served at the United Nations for 10 years including assignments to United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) dealing with numerous topics including environment, energy, rural development and programme management. He obtained his academic credentials from Georgetown University and the University of Chicago.

This agenda is not final and subject to change. Please re-visit this page to find the newest version.

For the map of the symposium venue please download the leaflet in English (3.5 MB) or in Japanese (3.7 MB).

For substantive information, please contact Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal, Global Carbon Project.

Symposium Secretariat
Ms. Yukako Ojima, Global Carbon Project,
NIES, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Japan 305 8506,
Tel: +81 29 850 2672, Fax: +81 29 850 2960,
E-mail: