Climate change law and policy in the Asia-Pacific 2020 in Tokyo(online) (Finalized)

Agenda of the symposium in 2020

Subnational Climate Change Action in the Asia-Pacific

We are now in the midst of climate change. In accordance with the Paris Agreement, subnational governments are now targeting climate change beyond their national borders. Subnational governments are more helpful in tackling climate change and establishing an effective framework for it than central governments, because decision-making in parliament can often be paralyzed, and subnational governments are in a position where they can take more determined action; therefore, they play a critical role in climate change action, particularly in terms of supplementing central governments’ policies.

Smaller subnational governments are focusing on regional issues to reach a consensus among local residents on how to establish and execute a climate change action strategy. It is easier to promote people’s awareness of the reality of climate change, and discussion for climate action, as there is more room for trial and error in this context; this, in turn, can provide lessons for central governments, as well as other regions, towards a more comprehensive design for climate change action. In this sense, regional awareness can act as a laboratory of democracy, which can facilitate our understanding and analysis of climate change action in times of democratic crises. This is of particular relevance in the case of authoritarian regimes within the Asia-Pacific.

Subnational governments are working on developing risk reduction and prevention strategies, disaster responses and relief, as well as air and water quality protection. The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) established the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) to facilitate such adaptation in order to create a society that is more resilient to climate change.

For the purpose of combating climate change, scientific data should be collected before subnational governments make concrete climate change adaptation plans. Furthermore, an assessment of climate change should be conducted regularly to ensure its precision, and to facilitate the modification of policies for the purpose of taking more effective action. Some subnational governments may face a lack of human and financial resources, as well as the time to get precise scientific data, which may lead to the failure of parliamentary deliberation.

In Japan, the Ministry of Environment started the Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Information Platform (AP-PLAT) in June, 2019. The Climate Change Adaptation Information Platform provides helpful guidelines for subnational governments in terms of regulating climate change. On account of these recommendations, smaller governments can draft their local ordinances, and modify them when necessary.

Trial and error in one region may provide good lessons for other regions. In this symposium, we will focus on the climate change strategy of subnational governments in the Asia-Pacific using a legal analysis. Each of the four speakers will take one of the following approaches: basic concepts, sectoral measures, and basic international measures.

Date: 10:00 am, 9/11,2020 (JST, Japan)

(there will be no registration fees)

Place: Meiji university and Comparative law institute of Meiji university, Tokyo, Japan (Online)

Program(Final)

Morning session : Subnational Climate Change Action in the Asia-Pacific

Moderator, Prof. Ren-Chuan Kevin Kao (College of Law, National Taipei University, Taiwan)

10:00 am (JST, Tokyo), Ass. Prof. Yuichiro Tsuji (Meiji University) "Agenda of this symposium"

10:05, Keynote speaker from Taiwan, Prof.Jiunn-rong Yeh(National Taiwan University, Taiwan), Climate Change Legislation in Asia

10:20,Keynote speaker from South Korea,Prof. Cho Hong Sik (Seoul National University, South Korea), The Green New Deal in Korea: A Progressive Transformation of the Green Growth

10:35,Keynote speaker from US, Prof. Daniel Farber (UC Berkeley law, USA), The Geography of Subnational Climate Action

10:50, Keynote speaker from Japan, Prof. Yoshinobu Kitamura (Sophia university, Japan), Climate change measures in Japan under the Paris Agreement

11:05-11:20, Round table discussion

Speakers

Panel 1, 11:20-12:30

Adaptation and Asia

Moderator, Prof. Toru Yamada (Meiji University)

Discussant, Hitoshi Ushijima (Chuo University)

11:20, Prof. Gina Jeehyun Choi (Seoul National University), Inclusive Green New Deal: The Case of the City of Seoul

11:30, Dr.Shiyuan Jing (Shanghai Jiaotong University), Towards a Modern Environmental Governance System: China’s City-level

Environmental Policy Pilots and Environmental Legislation

11:40, Prof.Ren-Chuan Kevin Kao (College of Law, National Taipei University, Taiwan), Avoid Entanglement in Jurisdiction Controversy about Climate Change in Taiwan-Could Cooperative Federalism Play a Successful Role for a Unitary System?

11:50,Ass.Prof. Yuichiro Tsuji (Meiji University Law School), Adaptation and wind power generation in Japan -wind power in Japan

12:00-12:30, Round table session

Lunchtime session,12:30-12:40

Moderator Prof. Yuichiro Tsuji(Meiji university)

12:30, Prof. Mitsuru Abe, (Meijigakuin university, Japan), Book of Prof. Daniel Farber's Environmental law (in Japanese)

Afternoon session: Environmental law issue in each area

Panel 2, 12:40-13:50

Possibility of renewable energy in Japan

Moderator, Prof. Gina Jeehyun Choi (Seoul National University)

12:40, Prof. Kenichiro Yanagi (Meiji university Law School), Policy Development & Legislative and Regulatory Framework for Promoting and Introducing Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Japan

12:50, Prof.Toru Yamada (Meiji University, School of Arts and Letters), Tidal energy plants in the context of Japan’s cultural landscape preservation

13:00, Prof. David G. Litt (Keio university law school), The Japanese Nuclear Restart – Some Thoughts on the Role of the Courts

The Japanese Nuclear Restart – Some Thoughts on the Role of the Courts

13:10, Prof. Noriko Okubo (Osaka university), Climate Change Litigation in Japan: Kobe Coal-Fired Power Plant Cases

13:20-13:50 , Round table discussion

Panel 3,13:50-15:00

Energy, adaptation and judiciary

Moderator, Dr.Shiyuan Jing ( Shanghai Jiaotong University)

Discussant, Hikaru Hiranuma (Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research)

13:50, Prof. James Prest (Australian National University, ANU College of Law + ANU Energy Change Institute), Legal and Policy Issues in Three National Hydrogen Strategies

14:00, Prof. Dr. iur QIN Tianbao (National Changjiang Young Scholar Professor), Prospects of China’s Judiciary for Climate Change Adaptation

14:10, Dr. Comwatchara Iangong (Judge at Appeal Court Region 3, Thailand), Green Court in Thailand

14:20, Prof. Dr. Thomas Schomerus (Leuphana Universität Lüneburg), Solar Energy Requirements for Existing and

new-build Buildings - the Example of the City of Hamburg and the

Baden-Württemberg Climate Chance Act

14:30-15:00, Round table discussion

Closing Remark

15:00, Closing remark, Prof. Dr.Jur. Menkhaus Heinrich (Meiji university, Japan)

This symposium is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 18K01238, Climate change law and policy under Trump Administration and California state from 2018-04-01 to 2021-03-31.

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Climate change law and policy in the Asia-Pacific

Agenda of symposium in 2019

Twelve years have passed since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Vice-President Al Gore shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. We have seen climate change cause serious damage. We need adaptations, not only through mitigation, to sea-rising, high tides, heat waves, and habitats moving north. Now we may come to call it an emergency.

From 2007 to 2019, the Asia pacific region experienced various natural disasters such as the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, Taiwan in 2018. The Japanese government once decided not to accept nuclear power, but it declared that nuclear power was baseload electricity. In the meantime, a Japanese company froze its nuclear power business in England, the Wylfa Nuclear Power Station in western parts of England, in 2018 because of the high cost of establishing a nuclear power plant.

In Taiwan, in November 2018, a people’s referendum decided to remove the phrases in the Electricity Business Act saying that nuclear power plants would stop producing power by 2025.This referendum prevented the president of the Republic of China from pushing forward her renewable energy agenda.

In late December 2018, South Korea announced the eighth basic plan for energy, declaring that exiting from nuclear power plants has been abolished in order to increase the ratio of renewable energy. In March 2019, the president of South Korea has been negotiating with China about the serious air pollution that extends beyond the border with China. The Chinese government has greatly invested time and money to convert coal power into other resources. The Xi Jinping government puts a priority on the stable production of food and the conservation of the ecosystem.

In May 2018, a standing committee in Australia declared that Australia is one of most vulnerable countries to climate change, and climate change is one national defense risk.

These examples illustrate that climate change is an issue that goes beyond national borders, and energy law and policy are formulated by the people themselves. People make choices in their lives and may change their own destinies in the future. If we do not take action, we shall take responsibility for the serious damage caused by inaction.

This symposium reviews legal studies and experiences of participating countries and regions. A success in one country may fail in others. Although a globalized world enables us to see our legal principles and provisions as similar among Asian Pacific country and regions, certain factors may lead to different conclusions in separate countries. The speakers will review and determine why such differences have arisen, as well as explain how we can make change in our own lives.

Date: Sep. 13, 2019

Deadline for submission of abstract (300–500 words) by 30, June.

Submission to: Yuichiro Tsuji’s email account.

Each speaker has 10–12 minutes:

We strongly hope papers will eventually be submitted to a law journal or compiled into one book.

Speakers

Satoshi Kurokawa, Renewable Energy Penetration in Japan

Chun-Yuan Lin, Disaster relief mechanism for climate change disasters in Taiwan

Wen Hsiang & J Kung, Taking the Demonstration of Small-Scale Community Power Installation-As an Approach of Facilitating the Development of the Renewable Energy in Taiwan

Yuichiro Tsuji, Nuclear power plants and terror attacks in Japan

Helen Lee, The implication of lawsuits seeking compensation for climate loss and damages against corporations

Gina J. Cho, Adapting Liability Rules to Cope with Climate Change Induced Disasters:The Case of the Camp Fires and the Liability of Public Utility in California

Ren-Chuan Kevin Kao, Integrate Coastal Management Plan into a Climate Change Adaption Scheme—How Procedure and Substantive Reforms Designed by Taiwanese Agency

Tsung-Sheng Liao, Linking Climate Change and Human Rights: What Actions Can Taiwanese People Take?

Hitoshi Usjima, Boosting Offshore Wind Power Generation in Japan