Yasuo Takahashi

Executive Director, IGES

Mr. Yasuo Takahashi completed the Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo and joined the Environment Agency of Japan (present Ministry of the Environment) in 1983. He served key positions in the Ministry including Director of Climate Policy Division, Director General of Headquarters for Environmental Restoration of Fukushima, Director General of Environmental Management Bureau, and Vice-Minister for Global Environmental Affairs. After retired from the Ministry in 2019, he served as Senior Advisor for the Ministry, and joined IGES as Special Policy Advisor and became Executive Director from November 2020.

Eric Zusman

Research Leader, Sustainability Governance Centre, IGES

Eric Zusman is a Senior Policy Researcher and Area Leader at the Institute for Global Environmental Studies in Hayama, Japan. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mandarin Chinese from Rutgers University, a dual Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Asian Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. For much of the past two decades, he has worked on environmental issues in Asia. This has included publishing articles and book chapters on water scarcity, air pollution regulation, environmental law, and state capacity in Greater China. He has also worked with China’s Yellow River Conservancy Commission and the Chinese Research Academy on Environmental Science. In addition, he has also held research assistantships with the Woodrow Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum in Washington D.C., as well as Taiwan’s Academia Sinica. He is currently serving as a lead author for the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Chapter 17).

Nobue Amanuma

Senior Policy Researcher, Sustainability Governance Centre, IGES

Nobue Amanuma is Senior Policy Researcher at the Sustainability Governance Centre, IGES. Before joining IGES, she worked at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) from 2013 to 2017 and supported the regional process to formulate, implement, follow-up and review the SDGs. Her research focuses on SDGs and the social aspects of environmental sustainability. She is currently looking into how various actors, particularly governments and businesses in Japan and abroad, work toward the achievement of the SDGs. She has recently published a book with her colleagues in Japanese, explaining the basics of SDGs to the business actors, and setting out approaches and tools with which companies could integrate sustainability into their businesses. She holds a Masters in International Development from the University of Pittsburgh.

Yatsuka Kataoka

Joint-Programme Director, City Taskforce, IGES

After engaged in environmental technology transfer and capacity building projects targeted at the Southeast Asian countries in Global Environment Centre Foundation (GEC), Ms. Kataoka joined IGES in 2001. At IGES, she worked for water management related research projects, especially focusing on groundwater management policy and water quality management in Asian countries. After serving the senior coordinator for networking and outreach at Programme Management Office from April 2013 to March 2015, she was assigned as the Deputy Director of Kitakyusyu Urban Centre. She obtained LLM, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies of Kobe University.

Yasuo Takahashi

Research Manager, Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services, IGES

An expert in ecology and ecosystem services valuation. Involved in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Regional Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for Asia and the Pacific as a fellow, as well as in the IPBES Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services as a contributing author. Also been engaged in the Satoyama Initiative, a global network of practitioners to promote biodiversity conservation in production lands and seas. BSc from the Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, and MSc from the Darrell Institute for Conservation Ecology, University of Kent, UK.

Premakumara Jagath Dickella Gamaralalage

Deputy Director, The IGES Centre Collaborating with UNEP on Environmental Technologies (IGES/CCET), Japan.

Dr. Premakumara is a development planner, holds a PhD in Management Development from the Nihon Fukushi University, Japan in 2006. He has over 25 years’ experiences in working with academic, government, nongovernmental organisations, bilateral and international development agencies. Currently, he works as a Deputy Director of the IGES Centre Collaborating with UNEP on Environmental Technologies (CCET) at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan and assists developing countries and cities in improving waste management in more sustainable and circular manner. His work focuses on developing integrated/holistic waste management strategies at national and local levels, application of participatory learning and action methods to promote 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycling) and circular economy/ resource efficiency societies, integration of informal sector and women participation in waste management, and linkages between waste and climate change as well as sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Pham Ngoc Bao

Senior Policy Researcher, Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services, IGES

Dr. Pham Ngoc Bao received his PhD in Environmental Engineering and Management from the University of Tokyo, Japan. He has over 15 years of practical experience in implementing, managing and leading international policy-oriented research and capacity building projects in Asia, particularly in relation to water supply and sanitation, water-food-energy nexus, decentralized wastewater management in ASEAN, resource conservation and recycling, and marine plastic pollution. Dr. Bao is currently a Senior Policy Researcher/Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist at IGES, where he has led a number of international projects funded by various international development partners and donor agencies. He is also a member of the Secretariat of the Asian Water and Environment Partnership (WEPA) program funded by the Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan.

Mikiko Kainuma

Senior Research Advisor, IGES

Dr. Mikiko Kainuma is currently a senior research advisor of IGES. She joined National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) in 1977, and since 1990, she has been engaging in the development of Asia-Pacific Integrated Model (AIM), which assesses policy options for stabilizing the global climate, particularly in the Asian-Pacific region. She led the Low Carbon Asia Project from 2009 to 2014. She served as an adjunct professor at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology from 2003 to 2014. Her current research area of interest are in low carbon societies in Asia, energy systems and social development. She has published papers in international journal and books. These include Climate Policy Assessment (2003), Methodologies for leapfrogging to low carbon and sustainable development in Asia (2017), and Post-2020 Climate Action: Global and Asian Perspectives (2017). She received Academic Award by the Society of Environmental Science, Japan (2011), Remarkable Contribution to Science and Technology 2010: NISTEP (2010), and Nikkei Global Environmental Technology Award (1994). She was a Lead Author of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth and Fifth Assessment Report, and IPCC Special Report on 1.5 degrees. She was a Coordinating Lead Author of UNEP Global Environment Outlook 6 (GEO-6). She was selected “55 Japanese women with a sense of mission”, by Forbes Japan (2016).

Satoshi Kojima

Principal Coordinator, Strategic Management Office, IGES

Dr. Satoshi Kojima graduated from the University of Tokyo with a Master of Engineering. After engaging in water and environment related official development assistance (ODA) projects in several countries including Indonesia and Hungary, he studied environmental economics at the University of York in the United Kingdom. After receiving a Ph.D. of Environmental Economics, he joined IGES in 2005 and has engaged mainly in quantitative policy analysis of sustainable development policy in East Asia. He published a book “Sustainable Development in Water-stressed Developing Countries: A Quantitative Policy Analysis” from Edward Elgar Publishing in 2007.

Kentaro Tamura

Programme Director/Principal Researcher, Climate and Energy Area, IGES

Dr. Tamura obtained PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics (LSE). After working for the Yokohama National University, he joined IGES in 2003. He has centred his research on international cooperation on climate change, in particular the development and design of international climate regime, political economy and comparative studies of domestic climate and energy policy making processes in major economies. He published a number of peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and edited books in the field of climate and energy policy.

Atsushi Watabe

Programme Director, Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), IGES

Dr Watabe received a PhD in Media and Governance at Keio University. Since he has joined IGES he worked for several programmes including the international cooperation programmes to develop climate change policies and the action study on the recovery from the Nuclear Accident in Fukushima. He has led the Coordination Desk of the Sustainable Lifestyles and Education Programme of the UN 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns (One-Planet Network) since 2015. With his background in sociology, he has collaborated with and learned from many community-level initiatives to enable sustainable ways of living.

André Mader

Senior Policy Researcher, Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services, IGES

André is a conservation biologist with a focus on international biodiversity policy. Prior to joining IGES in July 2018 he was based in Switzerland for 3 years, coordinating the IPBES Regional Assessment for Europe and Central Asia. Prior to that he spent 4 years at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Canada, overseeing implementation of the Convention at the subnational level. That followed 5 years at ICLEI’s Cities Biodiversity Centre in South Africa, where he was responsible for the flagship “Local Action for Biodiversity” initiative. Earlier in his career Andre’s work, in Africa and the Middle East, included capacity development of subnational government practitioners; various ecological fieldwork; participation in the establishment of a wildlife breeding center; and management in nature reserves.

Xin Zhou

Research Leader, Strategic and Quantitative Analysis Centre, IGES

Dr. Xin Zhou is a Research Leader at the Strategic and Quantitative Analysis Centre (QAC) at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies. Currently, she is leading quantitative policy research in the areas of SDG interlinkages analysis and visualisation, green investment and green jobs assessments, and the water-energy nexus. In recent years, she led a wide array of policy assessment projects, including, but not limited to: the implications of nationally determined contributions (NDC) on the labour market in Indonesia, an assessment of carbon pricing and border carbon adjustment on industrial competitiveness and carbon leakage in Japan, an assessment of embodied emissions and international trade for Asian countries, an assessment of environmental goods and services sectors and their effects on employment in north-eastern Asian countries, as well as the development of the Japan 2050 Low Carbon Navigator.
She received a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from Nagoya University, Japan, in 2007. Before that, she had been working with the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy (PRCEE), the Ministry of Environmental Protection, China, since 1994. As Director of the Policy Research Division, she led many policy research supporting national policy-making on the environment. She has received several national scientific achievement prizes for her academic and social contributions to the Chinese government.

Junichi Fujino

Programme Director, City Taskforce, IGES

Dr. Fujino received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tokyo, focusing on analysing the world’s energy system in the year 2100 (SDG 7). In 2000, he began his work at the National Institute for Environmental Studies. He has been involved in “Low Carbon Society Scenarios Research Project towards 2050” and has participated in the government’s committee for Japan’s greenhouse gas emission reduction toward COP15 as well as toward the 2015 Paris Agreement (SDG 13). Since the autumn of 2010, he has been a committee member for promoting the "FutureCity” initiative and has supported local governments in sustainable city planning. He has also served as a member for the “Urban Planning and Sustainability Committee” (of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Organizing Committee), as well as the Chair of the“Decarbonisation Working Group” (SDG 11). Currently, his focus is on supporting Asian countries and local governments in efforts to decarbonise and achieve the SDGs (SDG 17). He has been an IGES full-time researcher since April 2019.

Takashi Otsuka

Joint-Director of Knowledge and Communications, IGES

Takashi Otsuka has been Joint-Director of Knowledge and Communications at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) since July 2018, closely working with various stakeholders to make progress on the transition toward a sustainable society. He started his professional career at IGES in 1999, and participated in various research projects, including comparative research on environmental consciousness in four Asian countries. From 2004 to 2006, he served as Task Manager for Asia and the Pacific at the UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi and was responsible for GEF project coordination. During his time at UNEP, he worked on a series of GEF projects aiming at balancing of coastal ecosystem conservation and local residents' livelihoods. After returning to IGES, he contributed to the preparation of the Medium- and Long-term Strategy of the Institute as a member of its Programme Management Office. From 2015 to June 2018, he worked at ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability as the Director of ICLEI Japan Office.