Joint Operation by the Central Government Office and the Local Environmental Institute! Tochigi Prefecture Climate Change Adaptation Center
| Date of interview | August 5, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Establishing organization | Climate Change Technical Measure Division, Department of Environment and Forestry, Tochigi Prefectural Government and Tochigi Prefectural Institute of Public Health and Environmental Science |
| Targets | Senior Researcher Wakairo, Tochigi Prefectural Institute of Public Health and Environmental Science Section Chief Tamada, Assistant Section Chief Yamada, Assistant Section Chief Aoki, and Manager Yamagata, Climate Change Technical Division, Department of Environment and Forestry, Tochigi Prefectural Government |
Background of establishment
Please tell us the positioning and organization of the Tochigi Prefecture Climate Change Adaptation Center.
Ms. Yamada：Tochigi Prefecture established a “Local Climate Change Adaptation Center” on April 1, 2020, based on Article 13 of the Climate Change Adaptation Act. Intending for coordination within the administration and with the National Institute for Environmental Studies, operations of the Center are jointly implemented by the “Climate Change Technical Measure Division” at the central government office and the “Tochigi Prefectural Institute of Public Health and Environmental Science,” which is a local environmental institute. The organization consists of 10 staff members, including those who hold dual positions. The Manager of the Department of Environment and Forestry also acts as the Director of the Center, and the Deputy Manager of the Department of Environment and Forestry and the Director of the Institute of Public Health and Environmental Science are appointed as the Deputy Directors of the Center. As Center employees, 2 from the Institute of Public Health and Environmental Science and 4 from the Climate Change Technical Measure Division are assigned in dual positions. As a core organization to promote the adaptation in the prefecture, we implement collection, organization, and analysis of information, and awareness raising, prepare the local climate change adaptation plan, and play a central role in its Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle, etc.
Please tell us about the main efforts of the Tochigi Prefecture Climate Change Adaptation Center.
Ms. Yamada：Our prefecture has decided to formulate the “Tochigi Prefecture Climate Change Measures Promotion Plan (provisional title),” which integrates the local climate change adaptation plan based on the Climate Change Adaptation Act, as the action plans of local governments based on the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures will come to the end of the planned period at the end of FY 2020, and implemented the “Tochigi Prefecture Climate Change Impact Survey” to organize the impacts of climate change in the prefecture in FY 2019. Based on the impact survey results, the Center works on further collection and analysis of information on the regions, providing technical advice to cities and towns, and transmission of information to prefecture residents and businesses. This year, which is the first year of establishment, we focused on getting the prefecture residents and businesses to know about “climate change” and “adaptation” first, and devoted our efforts in information transmission, including monthly issuance of “Tochigi Prefecture Climate Change Adaptation Center News,” which discussed impacts that the prefecture residents would feel familiar with. We are also planning to hold workshops, on-demand guest lectures at elementary and junior high schools, and cooperative surveys with high school clubs as part of the “Climate Change Information Collection and Analysis Project by Public Participation.” In addition, we are currently considering “aggressive” measures to take the climate change as an opportunity by utilizing the strengths of our prefecture, in addition to avoiding and mitigating the damages of its impact. In the future, we hope to focus more on adaptation measures and adaptation businesses which would become strengths of our prefecture, through interviews, etc. with prefectural testing and research institutes and businesses in the prefecture.
Ms. Wakairo：We have transmitted information on measures against heat stroke, including utilization of parasols and heat stroke alert, in Center News. In the 5th issue we just published the other day, we discussed the adaptation measures for dairy cattle, taking the opportunity of our interview with the prefectural animal husbandry experiment station. While the comfortable temperature for dairy cattle is said to be up to around 20C, it has exceeded 30C for an increasing number of days during the summer, even in the northern region of the prefecture where dairy farming is popular. Under such circumstances, effects such as a decrease in the amount of milk and milk fat rate caused by high temperatures have become matters of concern. Research institutes of our prefecture are therefore supporting the dairy farms of the prefecture which deliver “the largest raw milk production in Honshu” by studying effective measures against heat in cattle, such as spraying groundwater at the base of the neck of each cow. We hope to continue to transmit various measures for adaptation through Center News in the future.
Adaptation promotion and awareness raising
Have you done anything creative when conducting hearings from the concerned departments and research institutes?
Ms. Wakairo：When collecting information from various research institutes, we first look at the reports, etc. issued by the institutes. While it is rare for a research institute to study “climate change adaptation” as their primary purpose, we think it is highly likely that their research outcomes may lead to “adaptation measures.” We therefore put on our radar and approach these institutes. Since not many people consider that their operations are related to “adaptation” even within the administrative organization, we take an approach to let them talk about their specialty fields, and consider it important to talk face-to-face as much as possible in holding interviews with concerned parties.
Ms. Yamada：Our prefecture’s policy is to establish a subcommittee within the government with the deputy governor as the chairperson, and have working groups consisting of concerned sections prepare the plan and promote adaptation for the purpose of promoting climate change measures. We feel that this organization to make top-down, cross-departmental examination is the driving force for the entire government to examine and work together on adaptation that covers a wide range of fields. In the future, we hope to continue the operations at the Center while thoroughly grasping the seeds and needs of each section.
Please tell us about awareness raising you are currently working on.
Ms. Yamagata：We started awareness raising through lending of mist tents since the previous fiscal year. Mist tents can be used to reduce the sensible temperature through composite measures of heat shielding with the tent and addition of the wind from the electric fan to the evaporation heat by the mist. We lend out these tents to events by the prefecture, cities, or towns for the purpose of having the event participants learn about “climate change” and “adaptation” by using the opportunity of experiencing a measure against “heat stroke,” which is a familiar effect of climate change. We lent the tents out to 18 events last year. Furthermore, at environment-related events, we distribute to the event participants sticker surveys on effects of climate change that they feel familiar with (timing of cherry blooming, heat, short and heavy downpours, and how it snows) and adaptation measures they practice (hydration and use of parasols to prevent heat stroke, check on hazard maps, and prevention of insect bites with insect repellents). We use them as an opportunity to transmit information that the impacts of climate change can cover a very wide range of fields. For example, people may ask us “we do use insect repellents, but why climate change?” for the item “prevention of insect bites with insect repellents” on the sticker survey, and we can reply “it can be an ‘adaptation measure’ because the risk of getting bitten by mosquitoes carrying some virus will be higher when the habitat for mosquitoes expand due to the heat.” It is a topic that definitely gets people interested saying “there is such an impact!?” (laughs).
What gives you the sense of satisfaction by being in charge of adaptation, and what are your future prospects?
Ms. Yamagata：: I work at this Center as an exchange employee from Yaita City. The prefecture plays an important role to analyze the enormous amount of scientific findings and literature, and enlighten the residents widely, and I study every day about the methods of analysis and effective enlightenment. It is also necessary that the cities and towns promote climate change adaptation in addition to the prefecture. I hope to play the role of a bridge between the prefecture and cities and towns from the standpoint of the cities and towns about what kind of advice they can receive from the prefecture, how they should transmit to the residents, and what information they want to know, as the cities and towns promote adaptation.
Ms. Yamada：Since climate change adaptation covers a wide range of fields, I consider that there are many things we can do, and that it is a social problem in which no one is an outsider. It is therefore necessary that various stakeholders such as cities, towns, prefecture residents, businesses, universities, and communities work together, not to speak of the various sections of the prefectural government. On the other hand, there is an issue that we must share a large amount of information from various fields and the difficult future predictions in an easily understood manner. Since I think it is important that the local center can deliver its functions as a coordinator to connect “scientific findings” and “social implementation” under such circumstances, I hope to work hard, even though this is difficult work.
Mr. Aoki：I feel that the importance of the work at the Center lies in how we coordinate with people of various fields and make them aware that climate change is their business. I work in an administrative job. I will do my best to raise the chance for “adaptation” by utilizing my experience in transferring through various fields including civil engineering, industry, and agriculture!
Mr. Tamada：While the operations at the Center seem simple at one glance, with awareness raising on adaptation measures, etc., they are important in that they connect to protecting the life and assets of the residents of the prefecture, and I feel that providing support for it is worth doing. I hope to work so that the people of the prefecture will learn that the impacts of climate change are deeply related to our lives, including the heavy rain disasters that occurred in recent years.
Ms. Wakairo：I feel keenly the difficulty of having people understand the necessity for the operations related to global warming, since it is difficult to indicate the outcomes of our work in shape or figures. However, climate change is a matter of grave importance that affects everyone and that cannot be postponed. I therefore have the sense of satisfaction that I get to be involved in starting up the Center in our prefecture. While keeping in mind that even difficult data can be understood as familiar issues by each resident of the prefecture by working to describe in an easily understood manner, I hope to work on the important issue called the local climate change adaptation.
(Date of video publication: September 2, 2021/Date of publication: October 15, 2020)
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