The United Nations COP26 High-Level Champion for Climate Action, Nigel Topping, will convene senior Japanese business leaders at 3pm JST on Monday 19 April for a roundtable event to showcase Japanese business climate leadership and accelerating momentum in the pursuit of the “Race to Zero”, the flagship campaign for mobilizing non-state actors to reach net zero by 2050 at the very latest in the run up to the COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow later this year.

The Japan Race to Zero Business Roundtable Event will engage some of Japan’s leading limelights in the corporate and financial sectors, including Asset Management One, Hitachi, Kirin, Ricoh and large conglomerate and trading house Sumitomo Corporation, providing an opportunity to showcase their alignment with Prime Minister Suga’s “Net Zero by 2050” commitment, announced in October 2020.

This new effort from the COP26 High-Level Champion comes at a critical moment for Japan’s climate and energy policy overall, with Prime Minister Suga expected to soon announce a significant increase in Japan’s climate ambitions in the lead up to the US Leaders’ Summit on Climate, to be hosted by President Biden on Thursday 22 April 2021. Recent media reportssuggest both Japan and the US are considering new targets in the range of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

These policy developments will likely accelerate Japanese corporate action plans aligned with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C temperature goal in the lead-up to COP26, including through the UN High-Level Champions’ “Race to Zero” (RtZ) and its net zero finance-related initiatives.

The Roundtable will receive keynote presentations from the UK’s incoming COP26 President Alok Sharma and its chief diplomatic envoy in Tokyo, Ambassador Julia Longbottom CMG, as well as Japan’s Climate & Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, and the United Nations’ Special Envoy on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investment, Hiro Mizuno.

The Roundtable event has been organised in partnership with the Japan Climate Initiative (JCI, a national partner of the Race to Zero), the Japan Climate Leaders’ Partnership (JCLP), the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC), and the British Embassy in Tokyo.

While direct participation in the Roundtable is by invitation only, the event will be available for viewing online via Zoom following registration here. Simultaneous Japanese / English translation will be available throughout, and the session will be recorded for later viewing.

For further information or media inquiries regarding the event, please contact Dean Bialek (deanbialek@climatechampions.team) or Fiona Macklin (fionamacklin@climatechampions.team).