Through the process of Rio+20, a green economy is now recognised as an important tool available for achieving sustainable development. Positive expectations include its contribution to poverty eradication, economic growth, social inclusion, human welfare, employment and decent work. On the other hand, there are concerns about risks that need to be carefully avoided, for example, the concept and practice of green economy could be taken as unjustifiable discrimination or disguised restriction on finance and international trade. This session addresses how the global trend for shifting towards green economy may affect decisions and actions taken by countries and relevant organisations from diverse perspectives including climate change, energy security, and funding.

If rapidly growing Asian countries fail to make investments towards low-carbon societies in an intensive manner, they will be locked into carbon-intensive development paths for the upcoming half-century. Therefore, it is imperative that we orchestrate our knowledge and expertise from around the region as well as the necessary funds in order to steer towards low-carbon and green growth societies in an urgent fashion. On the occasion of the ISAP2012, we would like to engage in frank discussion on how to forge consensus in moving towards low-carbon societies, exchange necessary knowledge, build a substantial linkage between that knowledge and policies, and facilitate wise and effective investments towards low-carbon sustainable societies in a way that fosters active participation from like-minded stakeholders concerned.
- Discussion point PDF(43KB)

• Website:International Research Network for Low Carbon Societies (LCS-RNet)/Low Carbon Asia Research Network (LoCARNet)

Measures towards a “Green Economy” are taken around the globe including Japan. In this session, the business model for “smart cities” will be outlined, followed by actual measures taken by Iskandar Malaysia, Yokohama city and Kawasaki city. The aim of the session will be to highlight and discuss issues that need to be handled along with directions of future policies in order to achieve a green economy. In addition, this session aims at stimulating new measures towards a “Green Economy” with the common understanding generated by the discussion.

• Conference Report: YCU - IGES Joint Seminar on Low-Carbon and Smart Cities

A broad framing of the future SDGs was agreed in Rio. The coming years will be defining if the goals can help reorient global economic and development activities onto the right path towards sustainability. Implementation toward these goals necessitates better monitoring and governance mechanisms. At this critical juncture, 20 years after the Rio Earth Summit, we will discuss how important it is to look at similar efforts in the past and draw lessons and identify barriers to their effective implementation. We must also find ways to effectively operationalise the goals, targets and indicators at national and local levels, to achieve sustainable development.

Resilience is identified as one of the key elements of sustainable development. Recovery from the triple disasters in Tohoku region in Japan, including Fukushima, remains an enormous challenge, while many Asian countries face the urgent need to enhance resilience for diverse issues including climate change adaptation. This session will welcome a former Environment Minister from Germany and the Director of the Division of Regional Cooperation at UNEP to share perspectives on resilience and natural disasters.

After the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, actions were taken by various countries in Europe to implement decontamination, and following this, a total of 50 research and disaster-related organisations from 23 countries under the European Commission took part in the development of an on-line system and set of guidelines for emergency decision support. Inviting experts from Europe based on their experience and knowledge developed in Europe as well as field survey in Fukushima, this session promotes public discussion on how to best proceed effectively with full-scale decontamination on a national and local level from this fiscal year.

To cope with the rising pressures of environmental change, global biodiversity loss, and extreme natural hazards such as the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, societies need to build and enhance the resilience in the face of future disturbances. The Satoyama Initiative aims to conserve sustainable human-influenced natural environments (Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes and seascapes; SEPLs) through broader global recognition of their value. Its focus on the scientific aspects of human-nature interactions in SEPLs provides insight into the importance of promoting resilience. This session will illustrate the diverse benefits obtained through SEPLs and explore possible means to integrate this notion within environmental policy decisions.

• Article:"Deep roots of community resilience" by Robert Blasiak, Sana Okayasu and Ikuko Matsumoto（in UNU OneWorld 2.0）
• Session Report in Satoyama Initiative Website