On April 19, 2021, the Prime Minister held the second Expert Panel on Climate Change at the Prime Minister’s Office.

At the meeting, the participants engaged in discussions on the course of action toward the U.S.-hosted Leaders Summit on Climate, sustainable finance, and other matters.

Following the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

 “I appreciate the experts for the fruitful discussions today.

I visited Washington D.C. to hold a summit meeting with President Joe Biden, where we agreed to launch the Japan-U.S. Climate Partnership, further strengthen bilateral cooperation. We also agreed that the two countries would actively lead discussions in a series of international conferences scheduled for this year and beyond.

I would like to make a decision on Japan’s 2030 emissions reduction target at the timing of the climate summit slated on the 22nd this week, marking it as a milestone, and we will conduct reviews accordingly. Japan would like to play a leadership role in the world’s efforts toward decarbonization, by setting targets in line with our goal of realizing carbon-neutrality by 2050, which should be ambitious and suitable for a next growth strategy for a country underpinning monodzukuri (manufacturing) around the world.

With regard to sustainable finance, we believe that it is one of the promising means for encouraging investments in companies with advanced technologies and thus essential for Japan to continue its growth in the future. Based on the opinions of experts, I ask the relevant ministries and agencies to accelerate their efforts toward the establishment of an international green finance center, in order to attract global funds reportedly worth 3,000 trillion yen.”