News

C40 Tokyo Conference on Climate Change

24 October 2008

The C40 Tokyo Conference on Climate Change - Adaptation Measures for Sustainable Low Carbon Cities was held from 22-24 October 2008. Thirty-two cities participated and 13 Joint Actions for adaptation to the impacts of climate change were agreed to be implemented. The following joint statement was issued by the Chair of the C40 and Mayor of Toronto, David Miller and the Governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara:

"We, the C40 Chair and Mayor of Toronto and the Governor of Tokyo, have shared the following awareness on climate change.

The world is now facing grave environmental changes caused by global warming such as the rise of temperature and sea levels. Many experts are warning that if we do not put drastic measures in place within the next five or six years, we may find that we have pushed ourselves beyond the point of no return, with devastating consequences to humanity.

To avoid such a situation and ensure that a thriving global environment will be passed on to generations to come, the international community must cooperate in making an abrupt shifi in direction for drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have started fiom this year based on the Kyoto Protocol, but challenges still remain. A new global fiat-nework for the period fiom 2013 is now under discussion, but all nations of the world must reduce their emissions.

The role of the nation is crucial in addressing global warming, Cities account for significant amount of geenhouse gas emissions and therefore nations must recognize the leading role that cities can play. The C40 can show the UNFCCC COP I5 in Copenhagen Nov. / Dec. 2009 that cities are acting now and showing leadership on combating climate change.

So that we may deal with the crisis confronting us, along with implementing thorough measures for mitigation, we must also make serious efforts in the implementation of measures for adaptation to the impacts of climate change that we will have to deal with.

Based on this common recognition, we, the C40 Chair and Mayor of or onto and the Governor of Tokyo, will promote the implementation of joint actions through which C40 cities can share their technologies and experiences, and cities facing common issues can work together to address the issues posed by climate change. We will encourage cities to jointly plan specific actions for mutual exchange of new technological information and personnel, and to advocate movements to change the lifestyles of their citizens."

For further information please visit: www.c40tokyo.jp/en/.