
	Lyon Summit Information

Japanese Economic Cooperation in the Environmental Sector
by Economic Cooperation Bureau Ministry of Foreign Affairs

June 1996

The commitment had been announced by then-Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa at the 1992 Rio de Janeiro United Nations Conference on Environmental Development (UNCED). In the statement, Mr. Miyazawa said that the Government of Japan would broadly expand and strengthen its environmental aid and that the volume of such assistance over the five years beginning in FY1992 would be around 900 billion yen to 1 trillion yen.

The Government of Japan has made public that the total value of environmental aid given over four years from FY1992 was approximately 980 billion yen. This shows that the Government of Japan has achieved its commitment at UNCED one year ahead of schedule.

1.Type-specific Results (Provisional values for FY1995)

(Unit: 100 million yen)

Fiscal Year	Grant Aid	Loan Aid	Technical Assistance	Multilateral Assistance	Total
1992	310.6	2212.5	174.1	105.7	2,803
1993	377.1	1526.5	214.1	162.0	2,280

1994	414.3	1055.7	218.7	253.3	1,942

1995	422.1	1692.2	240.0	416.9	2,771

Total	1524.1	6489.9	846.9	937.9	9,796

(Note)
Grant aid and loan aid have been calculated on an exchange of notes basis. Technical assistance is calculated on a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) actual expenditures basis. Multilateral assistance is based on contributions, etc., made to international organizations.

2.The definition of environmental Official Development Assistance (ODA). (The following variety of sectors are subject to the environmental ODA.)

Improvement of the residential environment (water supply and sewage systems, disposal facilities).
Pollution control measures (air pollution, water pollution).
Forestry conservation.
Disaster prevention (flood prevention).
Natural environment conservation.

3.Examples of FY1995 bilateral assistance in the environmental sector:

India	--	Gujarat Afforestation and Development Project (Loan aid)
Bulgaria	--	Industrial Pollution Project in Plovdiv (Loan aid)

Indonesia	--	The Biodiversity Conservation Project (Grant aid)
Egypt		Project for Improvement of Solid Waste Management in Alexandria City, Phase II (Grant aid)
Zimbabwe	--	Water Pollution Control Project in the Upper Manyame River Region (Development study)
Chile	--	The Master Plan Study on Industrial Solid Waste Management in the Metropolitan Santiago Region in the Republic of Chile (Development study)

PRC	--	The Japan-China Friendship Environmental Protection Center (Project-type technical cooperation)
Mexico	--	The National Center for Environmental Research and Training (Project-type technical cooperation)

4.Multilateral Assistance:

Activities which have the support of the Government of Japan include the following: international organizations such as the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which assists in the environmental protection of developing areas, International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) receive monetary contributions. Furthermore, Japan makes contributions to the environment-related funds in such international development banks as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Japan's Environmental ODA Measures

(1) Background
In its Official Development Assistance (ODA) Charter, Japan has announced that the conservation of the environment is one of the basic aims of Japanese assistance, and has actively supported efforts toward the realization of sustainable development in developing nations.

At the Arch G-7 Summit in 1989, the Government of Japan publicly stated that it would aim to expand and strengthen aid in the environmental sector to approximately 300 billion yen in a three-year period beginning FY1989, and achieved those ends.

Furthermore, at the June 1992 United Nations Conference on Economic Development (UNCED), the Prime Minister of Japan stated his government's intention to broadly expand and strengthen aid in the environmental sector to between 900 billion yen and 1 trillion yen during a five-year period beginning FY1992.

(2) Achievements

(a)Aid between the four-year period from FY1992 to FY1995 has reached approximately 980 billion yen by the end of March 1996, resulting in an achievement of the goal one-year ahead of the UNCED-announced schedule.

(b)Specific areas subject to Japan's environmental ODA include improvements of residential environment (water supply and sewage systems, disposal facilities), disaster prevention (through flood prevention, etc.), forestry conservation, pollution control measures (air pollution, water pollution), energy conservation, and nature conservation. Furthermore, the Government of Japan has placed emphasis on improving the ability of developing nations to put into practice effective measures which deal with the issues of the environment. This includes measures such as the fostering of human resources through support for the establishment and management of centers for environmental research and training in Thailand, Indonesia, the People's Republic of China, Mexico and Chile.

(c)The following measures are in place to pay attention to environmental consideration to the implementation of aid. They include: annual consultations in which the Government of Japan transmits its emphasis on environmental considerations to the aid-recipient nation, as well as the emphasis of environmental considerations at the various phases of a project, including the selection of individual projects, its implementation, and evaluation. For example, these include the observation of regulations on emission standards in the developing nation, as well as the stipulation that these projects must take place outside of the legally established nature conservations districts of the developing nation.

Furthermore, the various aid implementing agencies and organizations are working to strengthen environmental consideration measures in various forms. In order to implement environmental consideration measures at the earliest possible stage and in the most effective manner possible, JICA and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) have drawn up Environmental Guidelines which study from various angles potential environmental impacts a particular project may have.

(d)The Government of Japan commenced with the dispatch of policy dialogue missions (on environment problems) since 1989, and have thus far sent missions to a total of ten nations in Central and South America, South-East Asia, East Africa and South-West Asia.

With regard to the People's Republic of China, an environmental mission was dispatched with Hiroshi Hashimoto, former Ambassador to the People's Republic of China as the head of the delegation. Furthermore, in May of this year, the first Japan-China Comprehensive Forum on Environmental Cooperation took place.

(3) Future Policy
(A)Since there are shortages of personnel in the environmental sector in developing countries, there is a need to foster human resources through such means as assisting the aforementioned centers for environmental research and training alongside cooperation in the various projects.

(B)The recognition of the importance of environmental conservation is heightening in the developing nations. However, it is necessary for Japan to actively work to tie the heightened awareness to requirements in individual plans. One of the more effective measures to achieve this end is through policy dialogues such as dispatching environmental missions.

(C)Traditionally, the emphases of environmental ODA have been improvements of residential environment (water supply and sewage systems, waste processing), and disaster prevention (through flood prevention, etc.). In the future, the Government of Japan would like to strengthen cooperation in not only the aforementioned areas, but also in pollution control measures, forestry conservation, nature conservation and energy saving.

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