Follow-up of the World Summit on Sustainable Development |
World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was held in the end of August to the beginning of September at Johannesburg, the capital of Republic of South Africa. In this edition, we would like to introduce the report of the summit, and our contribution for the WSSD's follow-up. |
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Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC), Frontier Research System for Global Change (FRSGC), and Earth Simulator Center (ESC) participated in WSSD from 29th August till 4th September. We would like to share with you our contribution, along with the Summit's background and future plan. |
Environmental Conference Held in Africa
"We thought we had found a way out of this predicarnent 10 years ago, with the agreements reached at the Earth Summit in Rio. But progress since then has been slower than we had hoped." "Now we have another chance to get this right." (Words of United Nation's Secretary General, Mr. Kofi A.Annan, Source : Gaiko Forum Vol.170)
"People, Planet and Prosperity" is the slogan of the Johannesburg Summit, held from the end of August to the beginning of September. 10 years after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, so called "Earth Summit" held in June of 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the World Summit on Sustainable Development was held in the capital of Republic of South Africa, Johannesburg, and called "Rio 10".
It has been said that the world peace and prosperity will be only possible by solving the problems in South Africa. When globalization is accelerated, as water and atmosphere circulate the globe, environmental problems, poverty, and health problems also go around the world.
Taking into consideration of issues on population, food security, health and sanitation, water shortage, shelter and so forth, and in order to discuss protection of natural resources, economic development, health and sanitation, energy issues, the Summit was taken place in Africa, where many of the problems on the Earth concentrate. The Summit also made clear to include the issues of poverty alleviation, and contribution to the developing nations in its agenda.
While many of the environment related international conferences tend to focus its priority in economic profit, since the Summit was held in Africa, the theme became very complicated. The discussion covered the remarkably wide range from water, energy, health and sanitation, agriculture, and bio-diversity, along with the cross-cutting theme covering all five specific themes.
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Gate of the Ubuntu Village, the Exhibition Site |
Japan's Participation
While Japan's oversea development assistance (ODA) budget is ranked as first in the world, we often receive comments that our social contribution in the world is not easy to see. As seen in the initiative to ratify Kyoto Protocol, Japanese government wants to appeal to the international society its active contribution for the environmental issues by making use of experience on industrial pollution in the past and development of science and technology.
Moreover, during this conference, Japan introduced the concept of the "global sharing" for sustainable development, by which strategies, responsibilities, experiences, and information are owned by all nations. With these backgrounds, Japanese government opened its own exhibition tent, the "Japan Pavilion," outside of the official exhibition of the national governments and international organizations. Japan is the only country besides Republic of South Africa, the host country of this Summit, that had its own exhibition tent. All exhibition was held in Ubuntu (means "unity" in Egyptian) Village, the athletic field located 5 Km away from Sandton, where the official conference was held.
Japan Pavilion
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Dr. Sakuma, Group Leader of ESC and Dr. Hotta, Director of Frontier Research Promotion Department made presentations, "Improving Predictions of Global Change Using the Earth Simulator", and "Ocean Observation: The ARGO Project (Advanced Ocean Observing System) respectively. In addition, in the session "Earth Observation for Sustainable Development", under the titles "Understanding Climate Variations" and "Strengthening Observational Capacity from Ocean", Dr. Sakuma and Dr. Fukasawa, Senior Scientist, OceanResearch Department of JAMSTEC introduced our activities. During the Summit, various people such as children from Africa, ministers from participating countries, including our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Kawaguchi, and Prime Minister, Mr. Koizumi visited our exhibition booth. |
Significance of Our Participation and Future Plan
In the cross-cutting project, which is the 6th theme of the Summit, the theme of science and technology and information, as well as capacity building for the decision making process was discussed. In the discussion, the first item raised was the contribution of science and technology for the realization of sustainable development. In the "Plan of Implementation," consists of 54 pages, various items which are highly related to FRSGC, ESC, JAMSTEC and NASDA were included, such as water cycle, climate change, ecosystem, atmosphere, global warming, ocean research, global observation, international co-operation, and so forth.
In the Johannesburg Summit, the highest environmental conference, we have clearly recognized that there are still various issues to be solved in our planet. The "Plan of Implementation" is the framework for our planet, which most of the world's leaders have agreed. Many participants emphasized "action over discussion." It is all up to us on how to interpret and utilize, by feeling the responsibility for our planet and our future.
FRSGC, and ESC, along with Frontier Observational Research System for Global Change (FORSGC), each of us will implement process research, observational research, and simulation respectively. With the collaboration of all three systems, by regarding the Earth as a single system, predicting the various global changes as much as possible is our ultimate mission. There are huge expectation to our activity for the sustainable development and establishment of improved lifestyle for our human society. Our ultimate goal can be complied with the slogan of the Johannesburg Summit, "People, Planet, and Prosperity."
 In the Seminar Hall |
In the framework issued by our Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi as the Japan's effort for the contribution to the World Summit, there are items related to our activities, such as global environment monitoring, climate change, biodiversity, water, and so forth. Further, we are very much encouraged by the words of Mr. Kofi A. Annan,
"In all these areas there are things we can do now with the technologies already at our disposal, provided we give the right incentives. But science will bring us many more solutions if we make the right investment in research."
(Source: Gaiko Forum Vol.170)
We see the progress of science and technology, and social benefits gained by the realization of accurate prediction of global change. "Prediction of Global Change," our huge and highly responsible mission, will be one of the fundamental bases for the society and policy making. We clearly felt that our tasks for social contributions are piling up. There have been five years since the establishment of FRSGC, and we have just started the project under MEXT, called "Research Project for Sustainable Coexistence of Human, Nature, and the Earth," with which our cross-cutting programs will be strengthened. Along with the starts of Earth Simulator's operation in this March, we would like to strengthen our activities for the realization of global change.
