SDGs Management: Toward Carbon-free Society, Expansion of renewable energy at the local level is the key

• Sustainable

“Announcement” set forward, concrete plan awaited

Since Japan’s then-Prime Minister Suga declared to set CO2 emissions net-zero by 2050, in his October 2020 policy speech, not only companies in the public sector but also local governments have been accelerating their efforts to achieve this goal toward carbon-free society. The number of local municipalities that have announced themselves as "zero-carbon city" -- aiming at net-zero CO2 emissions -- reached 444, as of the end of August 2021. In other words, more than 110 million people, on a population basis.

One of the 17 SDG goals is "13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”. In June 2021, the Japanese government's "National and Local Decarbonization Council" (Chairman: Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato) put together a plan for targeting a carbon-free society in 2050. The council set forth a policy to put strong effort for the next 5 years to create at least 100 "decarbonized leading regions" by 2030, by supporting the local governments with human resources, funds, technology, and information.

A specialized magazine Nikkei Glocal, conducted "Progress in SDGs Survey" in the fall of 2020 targeting 815 cities/wards across Japan, looking at how well the local environmental policies are progressing. Since 2016, under the “Law Concerning the Promotion of the Measures to Cope with Global Warming”, local governments are required to set an action plan covering the entire city/ward. In the survey, when the local governments were asked if they have set specific goals and put up a plan for reduction to achieve those goals, 42.3% answered that they have “built a plan and revised”, 18.8% answered that they have “built a plan but haven’t revised”. That is just slightly over 60% in total, revealing that there are still many places that need to start from building concrete plans.

Status of planning global warming countermeasures

Making the implementation of renewable energy to local re-vitalization

In the government’s action plan for regional decarbonization, the promotion of introducing community-based renewable energy was set as a top priority measure and a variety of supports are prepared.

Let's look at some example case studies of implementing renewable energy, from one of the evaluation indicators; "actions and projects undertaken regarding the SDGs", in the Progress in SDGs Survey. Some local cities took advantage of their regional characteristics, such as utilizing woody biomass. In the case of wind power generation, there were cities that aimed to boost the economy of the entire region by focusing on renewable energy.

Example of local projects and activities regarding SDGs

Solar power generation

• Decentralized deployment of renewable energy facilities, including mega solar power plants, and optimizing the use of energy through smart grids, for building a disaster-resistant sustainable city. -- Kitakami City, Iwate Prefecture

Geothermal energy

• Promoting smart agriculture with hydrothermal greenhouses generated by geothermal energy. Establishing environmental learning programs, tours for attracting visitors, and human resource development. -- Hachimantai City, Iwate Prefecture

Wind power generation

• Attracting offshore wind power generation facilities that can coexist with the fishing industry and harmonize with the landscape. Activate local companies and concentrate industries related to offshore wind power generation, for regional revitalization (increasing tax revenue and job creation) by developing local ports. -- Choshi City, Chiba Prefecture

Utilizing woody biomass

• Promoting the use of used culture media (biomass) generated from mushroom cultivation, the key industry of the city. Aiming local production/consumption of energy, reducing global warming, and supporting a low-carbon society. -- Nakano City, Nagano Prefecture
• Reuse logging materials and woody wastes as biomass resources, that are generated from the forest maintenance in Mount Rokko and others, as well as developing and utilizing renewable and new energy sources, such as Kobe biogas derived from sewage, small-scale hydroelectric power, wind power, and sewage heat. -- Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture

Waterpower generation

• Installation of power generation equipment, operated by the private sector, on a water pipe near a publicly owned water reservoir and with the natural waterfall pressure, run a small-scale hydroelectric power generation project. -- Tondabayashi City, Osaka Prefecture

The installment of renewable energy by utilizing local resources, such as solar power in houses, small-scale hydroelectric power, and biomass, make both energy production and consumption within the local area and establish a circulating economy. It is also good for securing energy in a disaster. On the other hand, large-scale renewable energy through technology advancements, such as massive solar power generation or wind power generation, can be successful in attracting companies. By attracting companies, an increase in jobs and residents will be expected. In any case, we believe that the installation of renewable energy will stimulate the local economy and would be a shortcut in solving regional issues.

Furthermore about the data

The Progress in SDGs Survey is based on three aspects; "economy," "society," and "environment”, with 80 evaluation indicators that are connected to those perspectives, respectively. Evaluation indicators are a mix of survey data and publicly released data.
The benchmark report highlights the strengths and challenges by comparing between indicators and with other municipalities. It also provides specific figures of each indicator such as "amount of CO2 emissions" and "capacity of installed renewable energy”.
This can be used as fundamental data for understanding the current status or for setting numerical targets.