Environment Ordinance to Ensure Tokyo Citizens' Health and Safety

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government included the words "global warming" an ordinance for the first time in December 2000, when it established the Environment Ordinance to Ensure Tokyo Citizens' Health and Safety. Although this ordinance is well known for its role in promoting the control of automobile exhaust gases under the "No Diesel Vehicle Campaign," the ordinance is also regarded as very meaningful in that it was among the first local government ordinances in Japan requiring large businesses to report their greenhouse gas emissions, under a program involving the mandatory submission of global warming countermeasures plans. Tokyo has also required owners of buildings with a total floor area of more than 10,000 square meters to submit their environmental plans and make public their environmental efforts related to the buildings.

Tokyo established the Tokyo Metropolitan Environmental Master Plan in January 2002, in which it clarifies its global warming measures and indicates its "strategic program" until the year 2005 as an administrative program. Moreover, the "Stop Global Warming, Tokyo Strategy," a more concrete strategy to address global warming, was released in February 2002. In November of the same year, the Basic Policy on Preventing Warming of Urban and Global Environments was established, under which concrete initiatives based on the "strategic program" had been pursued until 2005. At that time, Tokyo's environmental policies were mainly aimed at energy conservation, as represented by the global warming control program and the energy efficiency labeling system. Meanwhile, its policies for renewable energy were within the range of a pilot project, as represented by Tokyo Kazaguruma, a wind power project.

Tokyo expanded its focus when it drew up the "New Strategic Program for Sustainable Tokyo" in February 2006, in which it states that not only energy conservation but also renewable energy promotion would be the pillar of global warming measures.

Tokyo Metropolitan Environmental Security Ordinance

Tokyo Climate Change Strategy

In December 2006, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced its long-term project, "Tokyo's Big Change - The 10-year Plan," in which it states that, as a candidate city to host the 2016 Olympics, Tokyo would use the Olympics as an opportunity achieve even stronger growth in terms of the environment, safety, culture, tourism, industry, etc. For measures to address environmental issues, including global warming, Tokyo revealed the "10-Year Project for a Carbon-Minus Tokyo," a basic plan to make Tokyo the city that produces the lowest environmental impacts in the world. In the project, Tokyo mentions that it intends to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from the 2000 level by 2020. It also says that the five pillars to achieve the reduction are (1) to make better use of energy efficient technologies, (2) to become the city with the world's highest use of renewable energy city, (3) to create a sustainable, eco-friendly transport network, (4) to further develop environmental technologies and create environmental businesses, and (5) to promote the "carbon minus" movement.

In order to launch these innovative plans, Tokyo instituted the "Fund to Promote Measures against Climate Change" with a budget of 50 billion yen (about U.S.$526 million), with a deadline of 10 years.

In June 2007, Tokyo revealed its Climate Change Strategy as a basic policy for the "10-Year Project for a Carbon-Minus Tokyo," Including a number of measures: a mandatory CO2 emission reduction system targeted at large emitters; an independent cap and trade system; the promotion of energy conservation measures to small- and medium-sized enterprises; the promotion of trading in carbon reduction value, through what is called Environmental CBO (Collateralized Bond Obligation); and the establishment of a mechanism to introduce one million kilowatts in solar energy use, by purchasing electricity generated by sunlight at fixed prices and revitalizing the sluggish solar heat market. Tokyo is also considering its own tax system to promote energy saving. The strategy also includes the establishment of the National Network of Green Power Purchasing in collaboration with local governments across the country.

After the announcement of this strategy, Tokyo held multi-stakeholder meetings, at which businesses, non-governmental organizations, and others contributed to active discussion. Then, in June 2008 Tokyo, amended its Environmental Security Ordinance to promote the cap-and-trade system and so on.

Considering that the national government has yet to be able to adopte a cap and trade system, and that Tokyo's individual tax system to save energy is similar to an environmental tax system, Tokyo's initiatives to promote these systems seems to be very ambitious. In addition, its one million kilowatt solar energy introduction program is expected to be effective, because the program aims not only to offer subsidies but is also based on a package of policies (policy mix) including funding, tax incentives, urban planning, and the demand-driven "pull" approach.

Meanwhile, five proposals have already been announced in the "Stop Global Warming, Tokyo Strategy" as climate change strategies: (1) the launch of a mandatory CO2 emission reduction program targeted at large offices, hotels, department stores, etc., (2) the creation of a market for CO2 emission reduction certification, and (3) the mandatory use of renewable energy, such as photovoltaic power. In this regard, Tokyo has been a leader in establishing environmental measures from the perspective of climate change.

Tokyo Climate Change Strategy

Renewable Energy Strategy

In April 2006, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government established the Tokyo Renewable Energy Strategy, featuring challenging targets and three policy directions, and launching a major effort to expand the renewable energy market. In terms of global warming policy, Tokyo declared that it will match the pace of the European Union, California, and other environmentally advanced regions.

In this strategy, Tokyo has set an ambitious goal of increasing the proportion of renewable energy in Tokyo's total energy consumption to around 20 percent by 2020.

Tokyo defines "renewable energy" as all the renewable energy sources that could alleviate global warming, including natural heat sources like solar heat, passive solar heat, geothermal heat, and ground source heat. Therefore, Tokyo distinguishes renewable energy from "new energy," the term the nation often uses for alternative energy.

Meanwhile, the three policy directions in the strategy are (1) to create demand for renewable energy, (2) to make better use of the special characteristics of natural energy, and (3) to enable individuals and regions to choose the type of energy.

More specifically, the first policy direction indicates that Tokyo intends to advance the market-driven "pull" approach to increase demand for renewable energy and remove obstacles in the market, by taking advantage of the capital city's huge energy demand; the second means that Tokyo will proactively use solar heat and other natural energy sources to meet demand for low temperature heat, by applying the concept of exergy, which indicates the availability of energy; and the third indicates that Tokyo intends to enable regions and individuals to produce energy by themselves or to choose which type of energy to use, and that it also aims to multilaterally redevelop town blocks and apartment complexes at the same time.

One can see that this renewable energy strategy is significantly different from conventional ones, and that various interesting projects are based on the strategy.

Tokyo Renewable Energy Strategy (in Japanese)