Nature-based Solutions for Addressing Climate Change
Nature-based Solutions for Addressing Climate Change: An Outlook for Japan and the Asia-Pacific
Date: September 6, 2023 (U.S.) / September 7, 2023 (Japan)
Time: 6:00pm – 7:00pm (PT) / 10:00am – 11:00am (JT)
Location: Virtual
Registration: Register here
English and Japanese language interpretation will be provided
Join this unique opportunity to explore how Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are emerging as multi-purpose solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation, the preservation of biodiversity and the creation of a new economic market. Our esteemed panelists include AOYAMA Hiroetsu, Director for Environment Policy Office, Ocean and Environmental Policy Division, Ports and Harbours Bureau at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), Japan; Ken Haig, Head of Energy and Environmental Policy at Amazon Web Services (AWS); and Allison Lewin, Director of Climate Change Partnerships at The Nature Conservancy. This exceptional panel will be moderated by Yuki Isogai, Lead Partner, Sustainability Center of Excellence at PwC Japan.
This webinar will provide participants with an understanding of what NbS are and their potential outcomes and benefits (e.g. carbon offsets, economic opportunities, sustainable livelihoods and other social, environmental and biodiversity benefits). It will also explore how to promote investment in the field, including establishing a credible market, and shed light on what gaps need to be filled in order to fully realize the benefits of NbS at different scales (e.g. local vs regional). Speakers will draw from practical examples of NbS in the Asia-Pacific and abroad.
This event is part of the USJC Climate and Sustainability Initiative, supported by the initiative’s Founding Strategic Partner, Amazon.
Speakers
AOYAMA Hiroetsu
Hiroetsu AOYAMA
Director for Environmental Policy Office, Ocean and Environmental Policy Division, Ports and Harbours Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT)
Since joining MLIT in 2002, he has been mainly in charge of the planning and implementation of infrastructure policies including port, railway and disaster management. In 2011, immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake, he was dispatched to the on-site headquarter for major disaster management. This experience led him to play key roles in the field of disaster management in MLIT. For example, he was in charge of reconstruction of ports in disaster areas and played a leading role in new projects. In the railway division, he established a financial and legislative scheme to enable early revitalization of railways damaged by natural disasters. He also served as the policy secretary of the vice president in the Reconstruction Agency. For three years from 2019, he served as senior director for port promotion at Ibaraki Prefectural Government and has especially played a leading role in the promotion of port policy. He assumed his current position in April 2022.
Ken Haig
Ken Haig (Ph.D.) is Head of Energy and Environmental Policy for Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the Asia-Pacific region and Japan. Before joining AWS, Ken helped launch the APAC business for Opower, a startup that pioneered the blending of behavioral science and data science to promote large-scale energy management programs (acquired by Oracle in 2016), and prior to this was a U.S.-based academic teaching/researching comparative politics and public policy at U.C. Berkeley, Harvard University, and Bard College. Ken holds a B.A. from Harvard University, and a Masters and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Allison Lewin
Allison Lewin is Director, Climate Partnerships for The Nature Conservancy in the Asia Pacific region, based in Sydney, Australia. In this capacity Allison leads a regional team that provides strategic direction and oversight for TNC’s programming to expand and accelerate implementation of high-quality nature-based solutions (NbS) for climate across Asia Pacific, forges partnerships and generates and secures public and private resources to advance and scale this work.
Allison is a results-driven leader with 15 years of experience designing, raising funds for, managing and executing collaborative forestry and climate change programs spanning multiple countries and organizations. Prior to assuming her current position, Allison led the Responsible Asia Forestry & Trade partnership (RAFT), a consortium of 7 leading organizations focused on building the capacity of countries, companies and communities in Asia Pacific to practice legal, sustainable and climate-smart forest management and trade.
Before joining TNC, Allison worked to enhance equity in REDD+ financing and implementation and to advance participatory approaches to forest governance and management in Asia Pacific with the Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC) and IUCN. Allison holds an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies and an Honours B.A. in International Development Studies and East Asian Studies from McGill University.
Yuki Isogai
Since 2003, Yuki Isogai has been involved in private sector development in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, promoting investment by Japanese companies in private companies and government organizations. Her focus has been to engage in private sector development and public-private partnership projects in developing countries. Before joining PwC in 2011, she worked as a private sector development specialist of World Bank. As the lead of PwC Japan’s Sustainability Center of Excellence, she is responsible for supporting clients in developing their sustainability vision and strategy, promoting sustainable business transformation, building sustainability risk management systems, and addressing social issues in developing countries.