The leadership does’t always come from national governments; sometime it comes from the people.
In June 2017 the US federal government stated it’s intention to leave the Paris Agreement. What seemed to be a huge blow to the cause triggered a rally by the grassroots of America. A collaboration of 2,800 companies, states, cities and others rallied together to tell the world that they were still backing the agreement. A great response.
The “leadership-through-action” movement from the US struck a cord with over 100 Japanese companies, local governments, research institutions and NGOs.
The Japan Climate Initiative (JCI) was born on July 6th, 2018.
A network designed to empower communication and exchange strategies to energise climate actions in Japan.
The initiative has 105 members (at the moment, but will grow) including big companies and cities. Among the members are 26 companies and major cities such as Tokyo, Yokohama and Kyoto.
The urgency for change has become massive, to the point the cultural aversion to showing off has been put to the side and people are beginning to speak out about the climate and the need for action.
“We, the members of the Japan Climate Initiative, invite Japanese companies, municipalities, research institutions and civil society organizations to participate in the initiative and help build a decarbonized Japanese society… JCI will collaborate with other domestic multi-stakeholder coalitions to accelerate the transition towards decarbonized and climate resilient societies around the world.”
Japan isn’t a global leader in global climate action, but this is a huge statement of intent and we truly hope this particular movement grows.
