Report on the results of the participants' questionnaire survey at the First Meeting to Exchange Opinions on Promotion of Adaptation of Local Governments
| Date of the meeting | December 5, 2018 |
|---|---|
| Venue | Tokyo |
We asked those who participated in the opinion exchange meeting on the promotion of adaptation by local governments on December 5 to cooperate in the questionnaire survey. We will inform you of some of the questionnaire responses and trends in the overall response.
Attributes of questionnaire respondents
(Fig. 1) Thirty-one people from prefectures and twelve people from government-designated cities cooperated in a questionnaire.
(Fig. 2) We received cooperation from 38 people from cities/prefectural governments and five research institutes.
Concerning the Exchange of Opinions
Q. Please let us know your opinions and impressions regarding the workshop.
Twenty-one people responded that the workshop was a reference for the future. We also received opinions stating that we would like to hold workshops in the future.
※ Hereinafter, "" is an excerpt of some of the actual descriptive answers.
[Opinions on the content/improvement points (on subjects and programs)] included opinions on the subject of the workshop, such as "it was good to hear the talks of other prefectures in the division of the Prefectural Environmental Research Institute, universities, regional centers, etc.", as well as opinions on the progress schedule, such as "I wanted to lengthen the time of the group discussion." Your opinions will be used for the next improvement!
As for "Opinions on other events/improvement points," we received an opinion on how to group local governments that share common challenges.
Q. What is the status of implementation of climate change impact assessment?
The results of nine municipalities are included in "Implemented/Resolved" and include responses such as "Use of National H27 Climate Change Impact Assessment" in addition to the counts of municipalities that have been implemented such as "Impact Assessment was made by personnel in charge of each department."
As the reason for the "not yet examined," there was a comment such as "Adaptation is still under consideration, and it is not considered until the implementation of the impact assessment."
"No answer/unknown"includes answers whose status could not be estimated from the descriptive answers.
※ The actual implementation status may differ from the actual implementation status because the implementation status was estimated and totaled from the descriptive responses.
Regional Climate Change Adaptation
Q. How did you conduct the Climate Change Impact Assessment or how do you plan to implement it in the future?
The most common method of implementing impact assessment was to use national impact assessment.
Three municipalities also responded in accordance with [related departments implement and use information from related departments].
[Others] responses included "Universities are being evaluated by SI-CAT (Climate Change Adaptation Technologies Social Implementation Programme)", "Collected information from the weather gadget", and "Citizen questionnaires were conducted to investigate what areas citizens feel are affected by climate change and confirm that the evaluation results are consistent."
I see, the methods and usage data vary from municipality to municipality!
Q. Are there any specific challenges regarding the implementation of climate change impact assessments?
We found that many municipalities have problems such as [lack of experts, human resources, and knowledge] and [lack of budget].
In addition, coordination with other departments is also an issue, such as "coordination with related departments is necessary beforehand because the stance of the prefecture needs to be unified."
[Others] answered that "it is difficult because the fields are diverse."
Q. Are there any issues or contrivances related to coordination with other departments within the Agency in the promotion of adaptation?
There were several local governments coordinating with other departments through the holding of events and the establishment of organizations.
⇒ In formulating the plan, we held lectures by academics to improve understanding. We also held in-house study meetings. We also established in-house organizations (Adaptation Measures Promotion Subcommittee) and regularly held subcommittees and staff meetings to coordinate the formulation of regional adaptation plans. Once the plan was formulated, the subcommittee will share information and promote adaptation.
In addition, some respondents responded that coordination was made through communication between the persons in charge, saying, "Direct communication between the persons in charge is more important than formal communication like a conference."
Q. Do you have any ideas or failures within the Agency in the formulation of adaptation plans or in the promotion of adaptation measures?
We taught you that we are working to raise the awareness of adaptation in each department by integrating into one the potential adaptation measures that each department is pursuing without being aware of adaptation.
Other experiences and challenges included "I had difficulty gaining the understanding of each department at the time of plan revision" and "The interest and awareness of other departments in adaptation are extremely low."
It's hard to coordinate with other departments!
Q. Is there any concrete issue regarding the collection of information on the formulation of adaptation plans?
Some respondents complained that it was difficult to start by saying, "First of all, I don't know what to collect information from."
⇒ A-PLAT introduces the information required for each step in the formulation of plans in accordance with the new manuals. Please refer to the page for the formulation of the Local Climate Change Adaptation Plan.
We also received opinions on the new manual, saying, "I feel that the amount of information we collect has increased instead of being concrete, so I feel that the burden has increased."
Regarding issues and opinions related to the cooperation system with the relevant departments, the following answers were made: "We cannot judge the importance of climate-change impact assessments and adaptation measures in each field. Therefore, if the cooperation of the relevant Division and Office cannot be obtained, the field will fall out completely," and "We would very much appreciate the request from the ministries and agencies to actively participate in the relevant departments and agencies of the prefecture in a top-down manner."
We also received opinions on the effectiveness and evaluation of our measures. "I believe that there is a lack of knowledge on the prediction of effects and the evaluation of progress, so I think it is a matter of how to turn through PDCA cycles." "In the midst of uncertain predictions in the future, it is difficult to formulate measures. Evaluation is required after the formulation of plans. Therefore, it is difficult for local governments to formulate such methods at the time of hand-finding."
Local Climate Change Adaptation Center
Q. Are there any initiatives currently undertaken to secure Local climate change adaptation centers?
Four percent of the responding municipalities were found to be moving toward securing the center. The answers to the questionnaire "in progress/under coordination" included "coordination toward the establishment of a study group to examine the content of the center", "negotiating with a company that has secured a system", and "gathering information".
The seven municipalities that responded that they are currently considering their activities without reaching concrete measures were counted as [only considerations]. Responses included "We are scrutinizing relevant organizations, including internal organizations, and are considering whether we can apply existing organizations to these organizations."es, etc..
※ Since the status of activities was estimated and totaled from the descriptive responses, it may differ from the actual status of activities.
Q. Are there any reasons or challenges that cannot be addressed to secure a Local climate change adaptation centre?
Seven municipalities responded that [there are no institutions that serve as centers/it is difficult to identify institutions] are the reasons why it is difficult to secure centers... "There are no regional environmental research institutes or national universities in the city" and other responses.
The next most common reason was that [the details of the center's role were unclear]. "Although we are considering with Geo-Ring Laboratory in mind, the center's operations are still unknown, so we cannot examine the details of the personnel budget, etc.," "We believe that because it was stipulated by law, we must begin examinations, but we do not know the necessity of securing the center or specific operations, and we have not started examinations."
Based on this questionnaire survey, we were able to recognize the situation and issues related to the promotion of climate change adaptation by local governments.
Your answers will be used to help local governments promote adaptation!!
Thank you for your cooperation!!
