Japan’s Experience in Preparing National Communications - Financial Resources and Technology Transfer- Satoshi Ogawa Climate Change Division Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan 1st October 2004, Dublin

Outline Japan’s third national communication Comments at the In-Depth Review Preparation of the fourth national communication Conclusion

Time line for Japan’s NC3 April 2002: release of the Guideline of Measures to Prevent Global Warming May 2002: submission of Japan’s NC3 December 2002: in-depth review by an expert review team November 2003: report of the In-depth review

Public organizations Government coordination for NCs Government Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport... ODA Implementing Agencies - JICA, JBIC Private sectors NGOs Multilateral frameworks Ministry of the Environment

Policy framework of Japan’s environmental ODA ODA Charter (Aug. 2003) Medium-term Policy Country Assistance Programs Priority issue: Addressing global issues including environmental problems Kyoto Initiative (Dec.1997) Eco ISD (Aug.2002)5,000 human resources development in the environmental field over a 5-year period from FY 2002 ODA loans at concessional conditions Enhancement of Japan's grant aid for global environment Cooperation in Capacity Development ODA loans at concessional conditions Exploitation and transfer of Japan's technology and know-how

Example of ODA cooperation Cooperation under the Kyoto Initiative – Cooperation in capacity development (JICA) 8,200 people during fiscal year Climate change seminars – ODA loans (JBIC) 820 billion yen from Dec.1997 to Mar.2003 Used for pollution control, afforestation, renewable energy projects etc.

Examples from the MOE Asia Pacific Seminar on Climate Change – Held every year since 1991 – Capacity building in the Asia Pacific region Asia Pacific Network (AP-Net) – A website to provide information related to climate change policy Website: Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) – Foster global change research – Increase developing countries’ participation – Links between scientists and policy makers

Comments at the In-Depth Review: General comments Comprehensive coverage of the issues that meets the reporting requirements. Significant improvements over NC2 in reporting. Japan’s enhanced contribution to bilateral and multilateral cooperation (ODA, GEF, IPCC etc.). Japan’s bilateral aid policy emphasizes on country ownership and sustainable development objectives.

Comments at the In-Depth Review: Possible further improvements Detailed classification of activities into various sub-categories could be worth elaborating. >>The number of projects (>800) and overlapping nature of development projects are main difficulties. Transfer of technology to developing countries remains a key challenge, as in Japan most technology is in private sectors. >>How to assemble and evaluate private sectors’ activities for technology transfer?

Preparation of the NC4: Tentative schedule Sep. 2004, UNFCCC workshop for the NC4 Oct. 2004, Explanation to relevant ministries Start drafting Jun. 2005, Complete drafting Start inter-ministerial consultation Sep. 2005, Complete inter-ministerial consultation Public comment Dec. 2005, Completion of the NC4 and its submission Jan. 2006, Deadline for submission

Preparation of the NC4: Basic Strategy Update and revise the NC3 Reflect comments from the IDR Report new policies and projects

Preparation of the NC4: Better use of existing resources On financial resources and technology transfer, existing databases could be used as valuable information resources – Creditor Reporting System of OECD/DAC – Reports under other international organizations (UNCCD, UNCBD, Ramsar Convention, etc.)

Conclusion: Lessons learned from the NC3 Japan’s NC3 successfully reported activities on financial resources and technology transfer. Possible further improvements were suggested by the report of the in-depth review. Main difficulties to compile comprehensive national communication come from its wide coverage of activities and wide range of stakeholders. For more effective and efficient reporting, existing databases could be utilized to collect climate-related projects.

Conclusion: For the preparation of the NC4… Detailed categorization of projects is one challenge. But it might involve subjective judgment and require too much workload. More comprehensive reporting related to technology transfer is another challenge. For effective and efficient reporting, existing databases and reports under other international frameworks could be key elements. >>Appropriate information database and enough time are necessary for successful reporting!!!

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