JICA’s international cooperation activities are carried out by experts in various fields, both inside and outside of JICA, who are passionate about their work. In “People Tackling International Challenges,” we focus on the stories of these people and delve into their past and future aspirations. In this sixth installment, we introduce Mr. Makoto Kato, a consultant in the field of climate change.
Makoto Kato, Overseas Environmental Cooperation Center, Japan (OECC)
We can face challenges because of our friends.
COP28 (the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), where countries around the world will discuss climate change, will be held from November 30 to December 12. Climate change is an urgent issue that must be tackled by the entire world. The various problems brought about by this issue require efforts to solve them not only in developed countries but also in developing countries as well.
Climate change is an issue that concerns everyone who lives on this planet. That is why we need to help each other with a variety of people. On the other hand, it means that we have a lot of people to work with. It is a field where information is updated on a daily basis, so there are many challenges, but it is very rewarding to be able to work in cooperation with so many people from all over the world.
Mr. Makoto Kato, an environmental consultant belonging to the Overseas Environmental Cooperation Center, Japan (OECC), has been involved in JICA’s international cooperation projects, including inviting government officials from developing countries to Japan for training, and assisting governments and local authorities in Thailand and Vietnam in formulating and implementing climate change countermeasure plans. In Thailand and Vietnam, I have been involved in the planning and implementation of climate change countermeasures by governments and local governments. JICA has also played an active role in a wide range of international conferences such as the COP.
Study session on climate finance with Vietnamese government officials. They say many people are motivated to take action on climate change.
I “met” climate change through my internship.
A JICA official who knows Ms. Kato well describes her as a “front-runner in the field of climate change. Mr. Kato was first introduced to the field of climate change through an internship during his graduate school years.
I joined the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific Social and Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) as an intern, and the various encounters and opportunities I was given here led me to my current job. When I was a student, I studied international law and public administration, and I was fortunate that the field of climate change had a wide frontier. There are many people active in the so-called liberal arts, such as lawyers who create policies and legal systems.”
His interest in international cooperation began when he was living in his hometown of Kitakyushu, where he was born and raised in a city that experienced pollution in the 1960s and 1970s, and was exposed at an early age to educational materials related to overcoming the problem, He also actively participated in educational events held at JICA Kyushu in Kitakyushu, Japan. During her college years, she also participated in a club activity called “Model United Nations,” where she debated various issues to be dealt with by the United Nations.
Then, after working as a consultant for UN ESCAP, I joined OECC, to which I still belong, and have been involved in the Japanese government’s support for developing countries in the field of climate change, and in projects to promote Japan’s bilateral crediting system (JCM / a system for working with developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions).
Through these activities, Mr. Kato has expanded the stage of his activities, and since COP10 in 2004, he has been participating in the UN climate change negotiations as a member of the Japanese government delegation. I am deeply moved by the thought that I have actually participated in real international negotiations, and not just in a circle activity.
Commemorative photo with representatives of the countries involved in the COP negotiations. Mr. Kato, fifth from right, holding the “CO-FACILITATOR” tag.
The hardships and thrills of a rapidly changing field
One example of a JICA project in which Mr. Kato was involved as a consultant was a project to support the preparation of a “Climate Change Master Plan” for Bangkok, Thailand. His role was to advise the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration from an expert’s standpoint and work with them to create a plan that outlines what they should work on in the future.
In Bangkok, climate change has not been a major consideration when thinking about urban development. For example, when roads are flooded due to heavy rainfall, it often causes heavy traffic congestion, and the city’s functionality is severely impaired. So, while considering risks such as disasters, we are also providing expertise in sending out early warnings and creating avoidance routes in preparation for such risks,” he said.
Vietnam is also participating in a project to support the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the Paris Agreement starting in 2021. As a result of the international agreement, the goal is to limit the increase in global average temperature to within 1.5 degrees Celsius, and countries are planning and implementing greenhouse gas reduction measures in the areas of energy, transportation, waste, and other sectors to achieve this goal. This project supports Vietnam in implementing the plan (NDC) it submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat, and Mr. Kato is supporting the process of implementing the plan, which involves many stakeholders, including private companies.
Climate change is a fast-changing field, with new technologies and countermeasures appearing one after another. But that does not mean that developing countries are lagging behind, says Mr. Kato. In fact, there is an accelerating trend toward proactive action, and there is a growing interest in Japan’s technologies and social initiatives.
In order to respond to the desire of the local people to find a way to fit their country’s needs by comparing and contrasting examples not only from Japan but also from various other countries, Mr. Kato learns from the wisdom and experience that Japan has accumulated over the years and uses this knowledge to provide advice tailored to each country and municipality. At the same time, he is constantly studying to keep up with the latest information.
Mr. Kato explains the real thrill of working on projects in developing countries as follows. For example, what took 20 years in Japan, developing countries are trying to implement in 5 or 8 years. It is a real thrill to be able to witness this up close, despite the difficulties involved, and it is something you cannot get anywhere else. In the first place, being able to help create a country’s laws and systems is something that is unique to international cooperation activities. It is a very interesting job.”
In Bangkok, Mr. Kato participated in an event to promote and raise awareness of urban greening (Mr. Kato is fourth from the left)
Japan is chosen for international cooperation to help
In the field of international cooperation, Mr. Kato says he tries to find the best solutions together with the recipients, rather than simply imposing what Japan has done in the past. Sometimes our opinions clash and we get into big fights, but that is because we are seriously discussing toward the same goal,” he says. I want to give people a chance to think.
In cases where he works with the same people over a long period of time across multiple projects, he says he sometimes sees changes in them. In the beginning, they were saying, ‘We are a developing country, so we can’t do that,’ but now they are finding issues on their own, requesting new assistance, and being proactive, which makes me very happy.
This is a result of the fact that people are definitely feeling Mr. Kato’s approach of being there for them. He also says that his relationships with people can be useful in the field of international negotiations, which is another area where he is active. He says that “Japan is often assisted by developing countries” in such situations.
For example, there have actually been many occasions when they have shown understanding of Japan’s position at international meetings and explained it to other countries. Also, when the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting was held in Vientiane, Laos, a senior Vietnamese government official who is working with us on a current project provided support to us on the Japanese side. It is nice to see that connections are being created that are not one-way streets.”
He is positive about the future, saying that he would like to work in a job where he is in charge of the entire cooperation process from upstream to downstream. It is of course important to create targets and find ways to achieve them, but it is also important to create a path for the people who will actually implement the project in the field to want to do so on their own initiative, and I hope to be involved in both areas.
Mr. Kato connects Japan and the world through his consulting services. We are sure that he will continue to expand his activities in the future.
International negotiations are not about winning or losing,” says Mr. Kato. I try to provide a landing point that can only be reached from a position of knowledge on the ground.
Makoto Kato
Director and Head of Operations, Overseas Environmental Cooperation Center, Japan (OECC). After working as a consultant for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), which he joined as an intern while enrolled in the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies at Kobe University, he has been engaged in international cooperation in the field of climate change at the OECC since 2003. He has been a member of the Japanese government delegation to the UN climate change negotiations since COP10 in 2004. He was the lead negotiator for “Capacity Building for Developing Countries” (Article 12) in the negotiations for the Paris Agreement. He is a part-time lecturer at the Environmental Innovator Course, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University.
Overseas Environmental Cooperation Center, Japan (OECC)
Established in 1990, the Japan Environment and Development Institute (JEEDI) is a group of experts with extensive knowledge, experience, and networks in the field of environmental and development cooperation overseas. In addition to JICA and the Ministry of the Environment (MOE), the organization works with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat, and other international organizations to promote a wide variety of environmental development cooperation.
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