Measures for inter-city environmental cooperation in the Pan Yellow Sea Zone

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In response to environmental pollution after the industrial development age, the clean development system’s environment economy forms the mainstream. It is based on the city design and climate change.

For the cooperation between the cities in Japan and Korea, collaboration in the fields of city design and environment economy is expected to be strengthened.

Cooperation with China is partly possible.

Kitakyushu attempts to expand environmental awareness as an environment response. In particular, it induces the reform of environmental awareness of citizens and motivates them to participate.

A new realization has been formed, i.e., environmental awareness cannot be spread without the activation of citizens’ participation. This is made possible through symbiotic buildings and various environmental education and events.

Kitakyushu implements environmental reform in both the consumption process and production process. Specifically, it expands the scope to the consumers’ purchase of environmental goods. It goes beyond the concept of recycling for resource conservation purposes.

Such concept is an advanced one in the world. The environmental concept has been formed by shifting from the existing preservation to environmental production; from zero-waste state, it pursues environmental consumption.

This connotes a circular self-contained process. Moreover, it strongly suggests that the environment is integrated as an economic mechanism.

2) Measures for inter-city environmental cooperation in the Pan Yellow

Cooperation needs to be consolidated in EOP, e.g., exhaust, drainage, and dust collection. This is because air and water pollution can be prevented considerably through EOP.

Note, however, that concrete cases of such cooperation need to be found.

Co-response to cooperation between cities in the Pan Yellow Sea Zone should also be promoted. In particular, Korea’s technologies and experiences as well as those of Japan have been accumulated.

B. Cooperation on urban sewer and wastewater processing

Cooperation by production type is actually applied to industrial producers.

Still, the issue of urban sewer and wastewater processing can be considered an issue from the local government dimension. It is related to urban environmental infrastructure such as sewer pipes and wastewater treatment plants.

Korea and Japan have relatively more developed urban sewer and wastewater treatment facilities than China. Waste in the two countries is also used as energy resource through heat processing. Thus, cooperation on construction-related technology and services is a must.

C. Carbon market creation and activation of carbon trade between cities in Northeast Asia

The environmental market has developed remarkably not only in advanced countries but in almost all countries in the world. This was attributed to the introduction of the independent clean development mechanism and a system between developing countries in 2005. As a result, the carbon market has been created. Nonetheless, the carbon market has hardly been dealt with in the previous environmental cooperation between cities in Northeast Asia.

According to the Bali Roadmap in 2007, all developing countries can be designated as mandatory CO2 emission reduction countries in the post-Kyoto Protocol (after 2012) scenario. This in turn gives rise to a situation wherein firms in the cities of China, Korea, and Japan are allocated the mandatory CO2 emission volume and required to buy CER.

Currently, Europe allocates CO2 emission volume to some 17,000 companies.

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Installing CO2 emission reduction facilities incurs huge costs.

Thus, firms will most likely buy CER or focus on the new regenerated energy businesses of developing countries.

Therefore, there is a need to foster exchange and cooperation to activate the carbon market between OEAED cooperation cities (many firms are distributed in the cities of OEAED).

Carbon market cooperation and environmental market cooperation are forms of economic cooperation. They can serve as the foundation for the rapid institutionalization of cooperation between cities in Northeast Asia.

Creating a kind of Northeast Asian Development Bank as the base of financial resource procurement has high potential. The environmental financial industry can be activated, and cooperation can be fostered in Northeast Asia.

(2) Cooperation on environmental awareness reform (from the aspect of environmental consumers)

A. Cooperation on environmental awareness reform in residential/daily life Kitakyushu City recorded a CO2 emission reduction of approximately 3%

in 2006 compared to the 1990s. CO2 emission in households, businesses, and transportation sector is on the rise, however.

Reducing CO2 is a major task against climate change. Thus, citizens in Northeast Asia should take part in the reduction efforts in daily life including the residential and business sectors.

There is a need to search for a measure for jointly constructing pilot buildings related to daily life. Examples include model houses for reducing CO2 emission in the central square in the downtown area and environmentally symbiotic houses. Manuals for reducing CO2 emission can also be published.

B. Cooperation on the environmental benefits (from recycling cooperation to zero-waste cooperation) through environmental transactions

Cooperation on environmental awareness reform is both enlightening and normative. To boost such cooperation, however, the environment should be beneficial to Northeast Asian citizens as a product.

There is a need to come up with a trade device such as the Kitakyushu Environmental Card System. This system is based on the Northeast Asian currency structure. It is expected to facilitate the activation of environmental products. Efforts toward the creation of such product are essential.

A joint carbon point system in the Pan Yellow Sea Zone should also be established. This system should be linked with Korea’s carbon point system.

C. Activation of spatial planning including resource-saving urban planning Resource-saving urban planning should be activated. This can be done through the sharing of experiences. Such planning covers compact cities, expansion of green areas in city centers, and new regenerated energy use in residential and commercial facilities. City design should also be modularized in response to climate change. Through this, securing CER is facilitated.

There is a need to obtain CER by modularizing transportation plans. The focus shall be on public transportation such as light electric railway.

(3) Formation of an environmental promotion system between cities and pursuit of related projects

A. Formation of central organization (organizing environmental communities)

Environmental industrial cooperation and environmental awareness cooperation only through OEAED are insufficient in terms of size and contents. As such, there is a need for a review to expand and reorganize OEAED.

From the long-term perspective, the creation of the environmental community in Northeast Asia is promoted. This is aimed at achieving joint environmental targets such as EU and NAFTA.

B. Enhancement of industry-academe-research cluster formations between cities for the environment industry

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With the consolidation of environment industry development and cooperation between cities, the formation of an industry-academe-research cluster is recommended in fostering environmental cooperation in Northeast Asia.

For the industry-academe-research cluster cooperation between cities in Northeast Asia, Korea and Japan need to cooperate first. Support for the developed environmental technologies can then be provided for Chinese firms. The three countries can specialize in the waste recycling business depending on the characteristics of the cities concerned.

(4) Central government’s role in environmental cooperation in Northeast Asia

The environmental cooperation paradigm is shifting from environmental preservation to environment industry cooperation. In terms of the recent climate changes, such paradigm is rapidly changing to cooperation (environmental finance) from the aspect of environmental consumers.

Currently, cooperation between cities is applied to the environmental market paradigm particularly environment industry and finance.

Europe and America have CER trade markets. In fact, CER trade has been active centering on Europe since 2008. The price of CO₂ per ton rapidly rose from Euro 15 in 2007 to Euro 25 in April 2008. This suggests that the environmental market trend is rapidly developing.

Meanwhile, the CER trade market from the aspect of environmental consumers has yet to be activated in Northeast Asia.

An approach in terms of the role of the central government is needed by classifying it into the following: firm-related environment industry cooperation; city design and city infrastructure-related environment cooperation, and; cooperation from the consumer aspect (environmental finance cooperation).

Environment industry cooperation involves air and water pollution controlling facilities related to the industrial producers and CP and EOP. In the case of Japan, it played a huge role in minimizing industrial pollutants considerably.

City design- and infrastructure-related environmental cooperation includes city design cooperation. Examples are city infrastructure cooperation related to sewer and wastewater treatment, public transportation activation cities, and compact cities.

Environmental cooperation from the consumer aspect (environmental finance cooperation) involves the creation and activation of a CER trade market in Northeast Asia. A system wherein regular citizens earn carbon points that can be used to purchase environmental goods can also be built.

In Northeast Asia, there are no international cooperative organizations such as EU and NAFTA. Consultation between central governments is required to support environmental city development and keep up with the market trend of the environment.

For environmental cooperation between cities in Northeast Asia, new town development can be considered. This will capture CP and EOP cooperation, city infrastructure, and design cooperation. In the case of Korea, there is a need to apply the accumulated new town development capabilities to major cities in China given its rapidly growing population (especially OEAED member cities). Such capabilities should be developed into something similar to Tianjin Eco-city.

Domestically, the modularization of environmental cities related to the eco-city in association with the clean development system may be implemented, Through this, the means for applying the carbon market to the environmental city (see the case of clean development system of the environmental city as a new regenerated energy city of Payeongtaek-Sosabul of Korea Land Corporation) is expected to be established.

Fostering cooperation between the local governments in Northeast Asia requires close cooperation between central governments. Likewise, the focus should be on preparations for financial resource procurement. Note that this was the cause of the lack of cooperation between cities in Northeast Asia.

For issues related to city designs including housing, transportation, and compact cities in environmental

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cooperation between cities in Northeast Asia, joint CO2 emission reduction plans should be supported. Targets against climate change should also be established between local governments in Northeast Asia. In addition, a measure for providing assistance through cooperation via the central governments should be devised.

From the start, such reduction plan can be associated with a clean development system. This way, the carbon trade futures market such as EU-ETS can be established through close cooperation between central governments in Northeast Asia.

Based on this, the environmental financial system in Northeast Asia should be rearranged. The financial resource procurement in environmental cooperation should also be pursued.

A means of supporting the government’s ODA fund should be devised. Such support should be similar to that for the Dalian environment maintenance zone by Kitakyushu. Note, however, that selective support needs to be provided through an evaluation system for the cooperation between local governments.

The creation of carbon tax and CER fund is a must. In fact, this has been verified through research on carbon tax imposition and 2% fund accumulation per CER trade as presented in the Bali Roadmap. The same is true for devising a means of using the fund as financial resource for environmental cooperation between cities.

Various CO2 emission reduction plans can be achieved through modularization in a variety of fields. Thus, the creation of an expert group and a specialized organization for consulting by field is necessary. Above all, a measure for fostering the relevant personnel is required.

(5) Role of the local governments in the environmental cooperation between cities in Northeast Asia

Until now, many of Korea’s local governments do not have an international cooperation department. This partly explains the insufficient environmental cooperation between cities in Northeast Asia. Therefore, the creation of an international cooperation department in each city and environmental cooperation sub-department should be promoted between cities in Northeast Asia from the long-term perspective.

The concept of environmental cooperation between cities in Northeast Asia is mirrored in OEAED member cities. Nonetheless, it is still at the environment preservation level. Therefore, the weight of the environment industry and environmental finance should be expanded in relation to the climate change response system. Efforts to secure leadership in the environmental economic community are also necessary.

Environmental programs linking citizens, firms, and city governments through the carbon point system, etc., should be created. The partnership between the private sector and administration should also be activated.

In addition to the promotion of the industry-academe-research linkage domestically in relation to the environment industry, efforts should be made to use the international industry-academe-research network. This can be done by actively collaborating with universities in Japan and China.

Chapter 5•Conclusion: Promotion of Inter-City Linkages and Cooperation141

1. Importance of Regionalization and Inter-City Linkages and