Leveraging co-benefits for healthy net-zero transitions in Japanese and other G7 cities: A scalable approach for transformative change

Even as G7 countries pledge moderately stronger climate policies, lingering ambition and implementation gaps threaten the achievement of the Paris Agreement's 1.5 Co goals. Integrating health co-benefits into climate planning can help close these gaps. While important nationally, robust evidence of co-benefits could potentially hold more sway locally. However, local governments often face a tension between the willingness to use and capacity to generate evidence of these benefits. This three-year transdisciplinary project will work with local governments in Japan to integrate health and related co-benefits into climate planning. The project will demonstrate a co-design approach - including 1) policy scoping, 2) co-benefits/interlinkages analysis, 3) initial policy recommendations, 4) feasibility assessments, and 5) final recommended policy and enabling reforms - in Kawasaki, Niigata, and Hachinohe, Japan. Parts of that approach will be then be adapted to Paris, France, and Austin, United States. Project activities will be strategically embedded in learning and dissemination activities (i.e. webinar series coinciding with Japan's hosting of the G7 in 2023) to amplify impacts and drive transformative change.