Ministry Releases Guidelines on Low-Carbon Urban Development

Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism announced on August 30, 2010, that it has formulated guidelines to create low-carbon cities. In order to fight against global warming, besides taking individual approaches, such as improving the environmental performance of houses, a comprehensive approach needs to be taken in urban development; however, there had been no established methods up to now for objectively comparing the effectiveness of various combinations of measures. The guidelines were formulated to respond to those requirements.

They include a systematic description of basic concepts and specific measures for creating a low-carbon city, as well as simulation methods to estimate changes in carbon dioxide emissions from a city as a whole.

The guidelines are aimed at helping municipalities take measures that enable each to identify the basic information necessary for examining measures such as impacts caused by each measure and to promote objective examination of comprehensive urban development, including preparing a master plan towards the realization of low-carbon urban structure.

The ministry plans to post the latest practical data and examples on its website sequentially, and provide information and technical support to municipalities to promote use of the guidelines.

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism official website
http://www.mlit.go.jp/en/

Posted: 2010/12/31 06:00:15 AM