CDP organized a symposium on 3 December following the release of the 2021 CDP City Scores. The symposium included an overview of the state of disclosure in Japan’s municipalities, awards to the A-list cities of Tokyo City, Kyoto City, and Yokohama City, and speeches by Kyoto City Mayor Mr. Daisaku Kadokawa, Tokyo City Governor Ms. Yuriko Koike, and Yokohama City Mayor Mr. Takeharu Yamanaka.

Mr. Uchida Togo, Executive Director of ICLEI Japan, also took the stage to report on the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 from the perspective of local governments.

Ms. Emiko Murakami, Director of the Environmental Innovation Support Division of Kitakyushu City Environment Bureau, and Mr. Hiroaki Kurosawa, Director of the Global Finance City, Strategic Project Department of Tokyo City, spoke at the panel discussion “Promoting Sustainable Finance and the Use of CDP”, which aimed to promote cooperation between local governments and financial institutions in the field of sustainability and introduced their initiatives.

[Kyoto City]receives the highest rating of A in “CDP Cities”, a global climate change information disclosure system.

Kyoto City has received an A rating, the highest rating in the “CDP Cities” survey on urban climate change measures conducted by CDP, an international environmental non-profit organization.

More than 1,100 cities and regions around the world participated in the survey, of which 95 cities received an A rating. They were recognized for disclosing publicly and having a city-wide emissions inventory, have set an emissions reduction target and a renewable energy target for the future; have published climate action plans and other measures, and showing leadership in the field of climate change.

At the CDP Symposium “Environmental Information Disclosure and Sustainable Finance by Local Governments”, held on 3 December, the mayor of Kyoto City, Daisaku Kadokawa gave an acceptance speech at the award ceremony for local governments that received an A rating, expressing the city’s determination to take proactive measures to achieve a decarbonized society with net-zero CO2 emissions in 2050 as the birthplace of the Kyoto Protocol.

The only people who can stop the climate crisis are those of us living in the present. Let’s work together to realize a decarbonized society.

What is “CDP Cities”?

“CDP” is an international environmental non-profit organization that aims to “maintain a healthy and prosperous economy for people and the planet”. In order to achieve its goal, CDP encourages companies and cities to disclose information on their environmental impact and efforts and disseminate the results of its evaluations.

“CDP Cities” is a program to assess cities’ efforts to combat climate change. Based on the responses from cities around the world, experts will evaluate the cities’ efforts and publish the results. The annual “CDP Report” is used by institutional investors to make ESG investment decisions and is one of the most referenced data sources in the world.