A participant on JLGC’s recent Japan Study Tour to Nagasaki, Guardian Local Government Network editor Hannah Fearn has a piece in today’s Society Guardian on Nagasaki’s green deal:
“Yet, unlike many British cities, Nagasaki has a convincing vision for its future. Its prefectural government (comparable to a large county council or combined regional authority) has set out a ¥42bn (£295m) “green deal” for the region that links plans to increase tourism and improve its record on sustainability to its economic and industrial future.
The plan is this: make up the population gap by encouraging tourism and use the tourist industry to spread sustainable behaviour such as driving electric vehicles (on Goto, for example, all hire cars are already EV or PHV vehicles). Then use this expertise in eco-sustainability to develop a new industry in green technology (Mitsubishi is already gathering expertise in offshore wind) to create jobs. If this “green deal” succeeds, it could convince the Japanese government to site a new offshore green energy hub within the prefecture, turning the region’s fortunes around.
As Takahiro Suzuki, director general of the Nagasaki prefectural government, says: “This is a challenge to create a new society model from the island region … harnessing Nagasaki’s character and strengths to simultaneously promote twin goals of industrial development and job creation, and lowering carbon and going green.”
You can read the article here.
