About This Site

Green Local Government Portal is a portal site for local governments' environmental energy policies and is operated by a nonprofit organization, the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP). On this site, we aim to introduce local governments' environmental energy policies, such as measures against global warming and the expansion of renewable energy sources, and we will also report the most current events and survey results.

In 2008, local governments in Japan began to develop climate change policies. In 2007, major cities in the world released substantial CO2 emissions reduction targets: a 60% reduction from the 1990 levels by 2025 (London); a 30% reduction from the 2005 levels by 2030 (New York); and a 75% reduction from the 2004 levels by 2050 (Paris). However, while the Japanese government’s global warming measures remain static, local governments have been increasing their efforts to move forward in response to the global situation.

In the world’s urban areas, there are more and more cases of innovative efforts to overcome environmental issues, and as these efforts become more widespread, they become national policy models. For example, Aachen (Germany) created a momentum of feed-in tariff (FIT), which supported the expansion of renewable energy in Germany; Barcelona (Spain) set up an architectural standard called the "Barcelona Model" in order to increase the usage of solar power equipment in Europe; and Copenhagen (Denmark) has promoted urban development to support bicycle transportation, including the construction of right turn lanes exclusively for bicycle use.

Just like innovative local governments led the initiatives on environmental pollution issues in the past, it is expected that the efforts of each Japanese local government, which are based on regional characteristics, will allow the development of more sustainable communities, as well as the creation of new climate change policies.