The city behind climate change

Sikander Z. Hashmi
Tempest

Ever think used cooking oil could power garbage trucks instead of being dumped into the back? It’s happening in the city that has become synonymous with climate change and global warming -- and where residents eat a lot of tempura.

Kyoto, better known as the protocol (officially know as the Kyoto Protocol to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), is Japan’s seventh largest city with a population of close to 1.5 million. It is the country's former imperial capital and was supposed to be bombed (the atomic type) by the United States in World War II, but was spared because of its historical and religious significance to the Japanese and was instead replaced by Nagasaki.

In 1997, fifty-two years after Kyoto was saved from becoming known for death and destruction, Kyoto rose to the world stage as the host city for the United Nations climate change conference that led to the protocol.

I called up the City of Kyoto to find out how the rise to prominence has been received at home. I managed to get a hold of Makoto Suganuma, the International Cooperation Manager of the city’s climate change policy division.

Suganuma told me that while the city’s fame hasn’t translated into major tourist yens (although tourism is up from just under 39 million visitors in 1998 to over 42 million in 2002), Kyotans are “very proud” about the fact that their city is the birthplace of the protocol, and as such, they feel the burden of environmental responsibility.

“We often say that as the birthplace of the Kyoto protocol we must make an effort to practice the 3 Rs, reduce, recycle and reuse,” Suganuma explained. And citizens appear to be trying. The average daily garbage per resident dropped from just above 1.52 kg in 2000 to under 1.46 kg in 2001. Canadians fare better though, producing about 1.05 kg of household garbage, per person per day in 2002.

In April 2005, Kyoto became the first city in Japan to enact a local global warming countermeasure plan. The goal is to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the city.

Suganuma cites the city’s biodiesel project as an example of measures taken by the city to battle global warming. 220 Kyoto garbage trucks and 95 city buses are powered by biodiesel made from recycled cooking oil. Tempura, made by frying shrimp, vegetables, and other foods in cooking oil, is popular in Japan and getting rid of all that cooking oil can be an issue. Pouring it down the drain creates a burden for sewage processing plants, so the city has set up around 1,000 collection points for used cooking oil. Residents drop off the oil, which is then refined at a fuel conversion plant. The city estimates the project is putting a dent in carbon dioxide emissions by the tune of approximately 4,000 tons annually.

Kyoto has also come up with a neat way of encouraging the use of solar energy. The city’s residential garbage incineration facilities use the heat they create to generate electricity, which is sold to electric power companies. The income: about $4 million US per year, part of which is used to encourage the installation of solar electric generation systems in residential homes.

In an attempt to champion the cause on a global level, Kyoto mayor Masumoto Yorikane formed the World Mayors Council on Climate Change. The group’s first meeting, in December 2005, was held in Montreal. The second meeting was held last month in Kyoto, which Mayors Gérald Tremblay and David Miller, of Montreal and Toronto respectively, attended.

The Japanese government is also stepping up to the challenge, promising to lead the search for a post-2012 pact on global warming when it hosts the G8 summit next year.