The Announcement of the ESD Okayama Award 2023 Winners and the Report of the Award Ceremony

Okayama City and the ESD Okayama Award Steering Board are pleased to announce that the following two projects have been selected for the ESD Okayama Award 2023, which recognizes outstanding ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) activities in Japan and abroad. On November 23, 2023, Okayama City and the Okayama ESD Promotion Commission invited representatives of 

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Local Initiatives Leading the Way in Plastic Waste Reduction: Exploring Japan’s Progressive Activities towards INC-3

Co-Authors: Okayama City, Kitakyushu City and Toyama City 1 Background Countries agreed to establish a binding global plastics treaty by 2024 at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA5.2). The initiative was prompted by the fact that 60% of plastic pollution flows from urban areas into the oceans, harming marine biodiversity. Japan, which is surrounded by 

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Aichi Prefecture and Tokyo Metropolitan Government promote Ecological Networks towards the next step of CBD-COP15

Co-authors: Aichi Prefecture and Tokyo Metropolitan Government Biodiversity is being degraded by urban development, overpopulation, economic development, and unsustainable land use that exceeds domestic and international environmental capacity. Against the backdrop of international discussions based on the Convention on Biological Diversity, cities need to take measures to protect biodiversity. However, biodiversity in urban areas has 

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Tokyo to require solar panels on new small, medium-sized buildings including houses

By Tokyo Metropolitan Government Tokyo is the central city of Japan with a population of approximately 14 million people who emit greenhouse gases (GHG) equivalent, or about 62 million tons of CO2 per year. In order to fulfill its responsibility as a megacity and play its part in tackling the climate crisis to limit temperature 

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Zero Carbon Conference for Students held for the first time -High school and university students learn and interact with each other across countries-

By Nagano Prefecture Cooperation between Nagano Prefecture, Japan and Region of North Karelia, Finland The Zero Carbon Conference for Students was held online for four days from February 22 to 25, 2022. The conference was organized by the Nagano Prefectural Government, Karelia University of Applied Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, North Karelia Municipal Education and 

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Itabashi Ward and Tokyo Metropolitan Government launched “e-Ride Tokyo”, a battery sharing project for EV motorcycles

Itabashi Ward and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government held a launching ceremony of battery sharing for EV motorcycles. Itabashi Ward is located in the northwestern part of Tokyo’s 23 wards, with lowlands in the north and plateaus in the south. Itabashi Ward had been highlighted as a transportation hub, and public transportations like railroads, subways, and 

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ESD Okayama Award 2021 Winners contribute to Community Resilience

The ESD Okayama Award has been held since 2015 by Okayama City and the ESD Okayama Award Steering Committee, with the aim of honoring good practices of ESD in Japan and abroad, thereby enhancing the activities of the organizations that implement the projects, and contributing to the spread of ESD. After the final selection, Okayama 

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Collaborating for change: Yokohama shares innovative solutions to advance the SDGs

  By Isabelle Ward Achieving the SDGs will not only help mitigate the climate crisis, it will bring positive economic and social change. However, the UN Summit in 2019 and SDG High Level Political Forum in 2020 both stressed that we are behind in terms of meeting the SDG targets. Effective knowledge sharing between cities 

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How to achieve a 1.5°C lifestyle? Japanese cities have unique tools to offer

We are in the middle of a planetary crisis due to climate change. The Paris Agreement,  set in 2015, strives to combat climate change and limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrialization levels. If the 1.5 °C target is to be met, we need to drastically change our lifestyles.  To promote 

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Itabashi Ward revitalises its small scale urban agriculture tradition

Small scale urban agriculture in Japan has a long history but is increasingly being diversified beyond just providing freshly grown products. It is offering farming experiences for residents, green space for communities, conserving local biodiversity and, in disaster prone Tokyo, safe evacuation space. In Itabashi it also presents a way for residents to rediscover, and 

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