Report
of the FRCGC's Participation in the 10th Session of the
Conference of the Parties(COP10)
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| Since 2003, the Frontier Research
Center for Global Change (FRCGC) has worked as a national
support body for the IPCC Working Group 1 (WG1) toward the
publication of the IPCC 4th Assessment Report in 2007, under
the guidance of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and
the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
(MEXT). Furthermore, since 2002, the FRCGC is carrying out
five of the seven research studies (partly or the whole) of
a MEXT's research project, "Sustainable Coexistence of Humans,
Nature, and the Earth", and making various contributions to
addressing issues on global warming. After Russia's ratification
in November 2003, the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty
on global warming, which sets legally binding limits on green
house gas emissions in industrialized countries, will finally
enter into force in February 2005, seven plus years after
its signing. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted during the 3rd
session of the Conference of the Parties (COP3). Since then,
time had past and we had the 10th session now. This 10th session
of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) was held in Buenos
Aires, the capital of Argentina, from 6th to 18th December
2004. It was recognized as an important meeting to make a
substantial step forward for the countermeasure against global
warming.
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La Rural Exhibition Center, the meeting
venue for the COP10 |
The high-level meeting |
| During the COP 10 meeting period,
the FRCGC joined the COP10 exhibition at the La Rural Center,
the meeting venue, and introduced in the Japan booth our activities
as one of the "frontier" research centers, to study scientific
aspects of global change. At the exhibition booth, the FRCGC
presented our recent research activities such as modeling of
carbon cycle in terrestrial ecosystem, trend of hydrological
cycle in China, the response of the Kuroshio to global warming,
as well as the most recent global change simulations and projections
using the Earth Simulator. A number
of people, those from international organizations, government
officials, and people from Argentina, visited out booth to
know the details of our research center, our research activities,
and possibilities for future cooperation. Among many visitors,
some of the interesting people are; the National Director
of National Metrology Services, Seychelles, who is actually
experiencing extreme weather and interested in Indian Ocean
Dipole (IOD), the Head of Climate Programme, World Wide Fund
for Nature,(WWF) -Netherlands, who is conducting research
on climate change and extreme weather, the Coordinator on
Vulnerability and Adaptation, Peruvian Program on Climate
Change and Air Quality who is interested in application and
adaptation research on natural science as well as forest and
El Niño simulation, the Head of Climate Change Program,
Global and Structural Policies Division, Environment Directorate,
OECD who would like to obtain research results of the Earth
Simulator, and a German Assembly member in charge of Environment
who is interested in Japan's policy on global warming issues. |
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The FRCGC's
exhibition booth |
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On 9th December, the side event,
titled "Climate Change Projection by the Earth Simulator and
Related Research Outcomes" was organized by the MEXT. Mr.
Junsaku Mizuhata, Deputy Director of the Office for Development
of International Earth Observation Strategy, MEXT made the
opening address and the briefing on the RR2002 project as
a MEXT activity to tackle global warming. Then Mr.Toru Mr.Shigetomi,
Associate Director of Planning Department, the Japan Agency
for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) introduced
the general outline of the JAMSTEC. He talked on the characteristic
features of research conducted in the FRCGC, where all Earth's
aspects related to global change are considered. He also made
general description of the Earth Simulator, located in the
same premises as the FRCGC (both are belonging to JAMSTEC's
Yokohama Institute for Earth Sciences). Then, Dr. Hiroki Kondo,
Senior Scientist of the FRCGC showed the recent outcomes of
model experiments in Japan utilizing the Earth Simulator,
on the simulation and the future projection of global climate,
regional climate and extreme events by a high resolution global
climate model (for scenario based long-term runs), a super-high
resolution model with the time slice method (applied for 10~20
years to present or future climate) and a regional climate
model , all developed in Japan. He also highlighted the development
of integrated earth system model at the FRCGC, which reflects
feedback effects of the ecosystem and other factors under
climate change on the concentration of the carbon dioxide
through carbon cycle. The model includes interactions among
changes in climate, ecosystem, and chemical compositions of
atmosphere. Some preliminary simulation results by the Earth
Simulator were shown. Dr.Yoshiaki Nishimura, Senior Staff
of CS Promotion Division, Central CS Promotion Office, Central
Research Institute of Electric Power Industry of Japan, represented
a research group addressing mainly the issue of the stabilization
level of green house gas, which will not give adverse effects
on humans. He showed the results of the projection experiments
with use of the Earth Simulator based on a community climate
model developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR), U.S.A. Dr. Matthew Collins from the Hadley Centre
of the UK Met Office highlighted their recent research results
and talked on collaborative projects between Japan and UK
on climate change research through comparative experiments.
Dr. Jose Marengo from the Center for Weather Forecasts and
Climate Studies, National Institute for Space Research of
Brazil reported on a tropical low disturbance (named as "Hurricane
Catarina") which landed the Southern Brazil in March 2004
and could be considered as a tropical cyclone, never observed
in the South Atlantic in the past. He stated his view that
this natural disaster was part of extreme events due to the
amplification of degree in climate variation. The last presentation
was made by Shuzo Nishioka, Executive Director of National
Institute for Environmental Studies. He summarized some of
research outcomes in Japan on the regional impact of global
warming from the result of both modeling and observational
research. |
Side event hosted by the MEXT |
| Japan is known as one of the
countries with advanced science and technology, and the results
of our world famous supercomputer, the Earth Simulator, were
introduced in this event. As a result, the event received high
interests from many people, among many side events held every
day during the meeting, and the event hall was full of interested
audiences. After the event, many people visited FRCGC exhibition
booth looking for Hiroki Kondo. The event was also largely highlighted
in the Earth Negotiation Bulletin, the newsletter reporting
the international conferences related UNFCCC (URL: http://www.iisd.ca/climate/cop10/enbots/9dec.htm).
Also, the Buenos Aires Herald covered this event in the half
page of its paper. During the
first part of the conference period, Mr. Oki, the ex-Environment
Minister, who served as Chairman at the COP 3 in 1997, visited
our exhibition booth. Kondo explained our research activities
to him including the result of the global warming simulation
using the Earth Simulator. |
Hiroki Kondo explaining the FRCGC's activities
to Mr. Oki |
| At the later part of the conference,
Ms. Yuriko Koike, the Japanese Environment Minister, Mr. Hironori
Takano, the Japanese Senior-vice Environment Minister of Japan,
and Mr. Itsunori Onodera, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of Japan visited out booth. In
the 10th Conference, the focus was put on global warming measures
on and after the year 2013, recently called "post Kyoto".
Due to extensive and diverse interests of participating countries
with different socio-economic backgrounds, parties were unable
to reach the consensus on some agenda items. Meanwhile, in
the decisions adopted by COP10, the specific emphasis was
raised in many fields, such as to scientifically analyzing
the impact of global warming in these five years, to emphasis
on research and systematic observational system, and to expanding
cooperation in data and products related to climate change.
In addition, it was planned to organize workshops and seminars
to increase awareness and understanding on issues on global
warming. In the "Buenos Aires programme of work on adaptation
and response measure", the specific emphasis were raised in
many fields.They are such that development and strengthening
of in-country modeling tools to assess the adverse effects
of climate change and drivers of regional climate trends,
enhancement of systematic observation and monitoring networks,
improving the availability of General Circulation Models,
and suggestion for the IPCC to incorporate region-specific
modeling information on the adverse effects of climate change
into its Forth Assessment Report (extracted from Buenos Aires
program of work on adaptation and response measure, Decision
1/CP.10, UNFCCC, 2004). The FRCGC has completed the calculation
for global warming experiments and currently summarizing its
outputs. In addition, we are making progress towards developing
the integrated earth system model, with which climate, ecosystem,
and chemical reaction in the atmosphere can interact each
other. By disseminating our research results, we would like
to be part of international corporation communities to deal
with global warming issues.
While there is large expectation for Japan's
contribution from international communities, the FRCGC's participation
in the COP 10 was a good opportunity to introduce our research
activities to wide range of people. |
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| Exhibition
Panel |
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