The 4th Meeting to Exchange Opinions on Promoting Climate Change Adaptation in the Region was held.

Date of event	October 29, 2021 (Friday)
Holding Method	Held online (using Zoom)
Sponsored by	Center for Climate Change Adaptation, National Institute for Environmental Studies

On October 29, 2021, with the aim of further promoting local adaptation efforts, the "4th Exchange of Opinions for the Promotion of Local Climate Change Adaptation" was held with the participation of about 80 local government officials from prefectures and government-designated cities throughout Japan.

This year's opinion exchange meeting was held in the form of Bunkakai, with the "Local Climate Change Adaptation Center Operations" Bunkakai held in the morning and the "Local Adaptation" Bunkakai held in the afternoon.

Morning session

In the morning, there was an explanation of the purpose of the meeting and a lecture on "Current status and issues for promotion of climate change adaptation in the region", followed by a Bunkakai on "Contents of work, issues, and clues to solutions for Local Climate Change Adaptation Centers".

Theme of the subcommittee

① Those who are already working on climate change impact prediction and assessment in the region and wish to exchange technical opinions (2 groups)
② Those who are planning to proceed with regional climate change impact prediction and assessment and wish to exchange opinions on the method (3 groups)
③ Those who are mainly engaged in information collection, dissemination, and enlightenment, and wish to exchange opinions on these issues (7 groups)

At the end of the Bunkakai, each of the 12 groups talked about what they shared, what they discussed, what they felt, and what impressed them the most.

Theme	Contents of the group presentation
①	The issue is how to evaluate the forecast in each region. How to handle the huge amount of weather data?
②	How to continuously disseminate information that is difficult to manage? How to collect scientific and technical knowledge? How do we do predictive evaluation and how do we disseminate information?
③	The issue is how to spread awareness among residents and how to cooperate with other organizations. Cooperation with other departments, securing personnel and budget, and building a network inside and outside the town. Raising awareness of the word "adaptation".

Afternoon session

In the afternoon, subcommittees on "Local Adaptation" were held on the following eight themes, and participants were free to move in and out of each subcommittee to exchange opinions. The purpose of this session was to share the efforts being made in the promotion of local adaptation and to exchange opinions that would provide clues to issues and solutions.

Theme of the subcommittee

① How to deal with future climate scenarios
② Impacts on the agricultural sector & adaptation measures
③ Impacts on natural ecosystem sectors & adaptation measures
④ Impacts on health sector (heat) & adaptation measures
⑤ How can we incorporate Eco-DRR (Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction) into our policies?
⑥ What is effective public awareness and environmental education?
⑦ How to tackle "business adaptation"
⑧ Methods for predicting and assessing impacts and considering adaptation measures in the region

■The following is a summary of the facilitators' impressions from the afternoon session.

With regard to impact assessment, there was a comment that there are multiple scenarios and models, so it is difficult to know which one to refer to.
Regarding the promotion and awareness of heat, it is difficult to alert the elderly to heat stroke.
As Eco-DRR is still a very unfamiliar topic, he would like to learn more about how to tackle it.
There were several comments on how to increase contact with businesses, and it seemed that there would be a need to establish methodologies and share information in this area in the future.
The participants actively exchanged opinions and shared their concerns and examples of various activities (seminars and lectures, development of teaching materials and educational programs for students, use of SNS) that they are usually engaged in or are planning to engage in.
There seems to be a common issue of how to conduct impact assessment appropriate for the region, and how to promote and manage adaptation measures and departmental cooperation.

Throughout, it was a forum for sharing the difficulties and knowledge in promoting adaptation, sharing further efforts in each region, and exchanging opinions on diversifying issues.

Finally, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the participants for their active comments in the Bunkakai and for the meaningful exchange of opinions.