Driving commercial and political engagement between Asia, the Middle East and Europe
Driving commercial and political engagement between Asia, the Middle East and Europe
Driving commercial and political engagement between Asia, the Middle East and Europe
This event takes place in-person at Asia House in London, with networking and refreshments from 08:30. To register interest in attending, please email Edward Danks, Programme Associate: edward.danks@asiahouse.co.uk
As major global economies with ambitious net-zero targets, both Japan and the UK have an opportunity to play an important role in driving and defining the world’s climate change agenda. 2022 is set to be an important year for the climate change diplomacy of each country, with the UK’s presidency of COP26 continuing until November and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recently announcing his vision for an “Asian Zero Emissions Community”.
With Japan and the UK having diverse and complimentary expertise in the field of climate change and sustainability, there are clear opportunities for greater bilateral collaboration as well as further cooperation in third countries. Japan is a world leader in green technologies, including hydrogen, and is an early adopter of TCFD reporting, while the UK is a major hub for green finance and a leader in renewable energies including offshore wind and solar. There is also scope for practical collaboration in fields ranging from the adoption of innovative and green technologies to working with the private sector to increase their commitment to achieving net-zero.
This event, organised in partnership with the Embassy of Japan in the UK, will bring together leading experts from both Japan and the UK to consider how the two countries can work towards decarbonisation and advance the broader global climate agenda beyond COP26.
Members of Asia House’s global network will be able to join the discussion via Zoom. Register interest here.
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Junichi Yamada
Executive Senior Vice President,
Japan International Cooperation Agency
As Executive Senior Vice President for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Junichi Yamada is at the heart of Japan’s climate change and sustainability response. He joined JICA in 2008 following postings in a range of diplomatic roles throughout Asia, including Malaysia and Myanmar. He was appointed Executive Senior Vice President of JICA in May 2020.
Junichi has degrees from the University of Tokyo and the University of Malaya.
Junichiro Otaka
Director, Climate Change Division, International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan
Junichiro Otaka was appointed as Director for Climate Change Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in August 2020. Prior to his appointment, Otaka served in such areas as international science cooperation, information safeguarding, arms control/disarmament, European affairs, defense policy, press affairs and Japan-U.S. economic relations.
Otaka has also served at the Permanent Mission of Japan in Geneva, Switzerland from 2011 to 2014, Japanese Embassy in Warsaw, Poland from 2009 to 2011, and Japanese Embassy in Canberra, Australia from 1998 to 2000. Otaka graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1995, with BA in International Relations. He also studied at the University of Edinburgh from 1996 to 1997, where he received a M. Phil in European and International Politics, and at the University of Cambridge from 1997 to 1998, where he received Master of Laws.
Nick Bridge
Special Representative for Climate Change, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK
Nick Bridge is a diplomat and civil servant. He was appointed as the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change in 2017, directing the UK’s global diplomatic climate change work, currently focused on COP26. Nick was previously Permanent Representative and Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the OECD and IEA from 2011 to 2016. He was Chief Economist at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He has served for over a decade in diplomatic postings to China, Japan and the United States.
Nick also worked in the Treasury, where he co-led a US$4 billion facility to immunise half a billion people in the developing world, and began his career as an economist in the Ministry of Agriculture. Nick has served on various Board and published many international media articles on climate change and the environment. He studied economics at the University of Nottingham and was a Senior Leader in Government fellow at Harvard.
Lord Green
Chairman, Asia House
Stephen Green is the former Group Chairman of HSBC, and served as UK Minister of State for Trade and Investment from 2011 to 2013. Lord Green was appointed Executive Director of HSBC in 1998, and held several senior positions within the organisation, including Group Chief Executive and Group Chairman. Stephen regularly speaks at our events around the world and has written on Asian affairs and global trade for a variety of publications. He brings a wealth of knowledge on trade policy and global economic issues to Asia House.
Ram Ramachander
Chief Digital Officer, and Chief Commercial Officer, Social Innovation Business Division EMEA
Hitachi Europe Ltd
Ram joined Hitachi in 2017 in the joint roles of Chief Commercial Officer for Social Innovation Business and Chief Digital Officer for Hitachi Europe, following a 25 year career both as an entrepreneur and a corporate executive in digital and green sectors, where he successfully built new businesses in new markets.
During the last surge in interest in climate change from big business and investors, Ram was a pioneer in building three digitally enabled green ventures both in Europe and Silicon Valley, working to accelerate the transition. In his current role, he continues to incubate and build new ventures inside Hitachi focused on climate change. Ram has successfully raised three rounds of funding and incubated and launched several businesses in Hitachi from renewable energy to e-mobility, and most recently was responsible for launching multi-billion EV-as-a-Service.
Vanessa Havard-Williams
Partner, Global Head of Environment and Climate Change,
Linklaters
Vanessa is leader of Linklaters’ global environmental and climate change group, and co-head of the Risk and Resilience and Crisis Management teams. She coordinates the work of the organisation’s ESG team across the firm. Vanessa advises multinational companies in relation to mandatory corporate reporting of greenhouse gas emissions; narrative reporting including advice on sustainability reports, and advising on the regulatory regime applicable to carbon capture and storage. She also advises on the regulatory and real estate regime applicable in the UK to shale gas exploration, advice on judicial review of energy regulation; advice on energy related EU directives and on EU and US transparency.
Vanessa has degrees from Oxford University and the College of Law.
Jun Arima
Senior Policy Fellow on Energy and Environment, ERIA
Project Professor Graduate School of Public Policy (GraSPP), University of Tokyo
Professor Arima took up the role of Project Professor, GraSPP, University of Tokyo, in 2021, having previously been appointed Senior Policy Fellow on Energy and Environment, Economic Research Institute of ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), and Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy (GraSPP), teaching international energy and climate policies. In addition to the Professorship at the University of Tokyo, he serves as Project Leader for the 21st Century Public Policy, Distinguished Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Pacific Institute of Research, (APIR), Consulting Fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Energy Economics of Japan (IEEJ) and a member of German Japan Energy Transition Council (GJETC). He is also one of the Lead Authors of the forthcoming 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Prof Arima began his career at the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry in 1982 (then, Ministry of International Trade and Industry), which was followed by more than three decades of experience in various roles in the field of energy and environment.
Robert Falkner
Associate Professor of International Relations and the Research Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
Robert Falkner is an Associate Professor of International Relations and the Research Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. He serves as the Academic Director of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA, an alliance between LSE, NYU Stern School of Business and HEC Paris (ranked #1 for joint executive MBA programmes in the 2021 QS rankings). Previously, he held academic positions at the universities of Oxford, Kent and Essex, and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University.
Born in Germany, he read for a double-degree in politics and economics at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. After moving to the UK, he gained a doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford (Nuffield College).
Tatsunori Matsubara
Chief Representative in London, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)
Tatsunori Matsubara is Chief Representative in London of JBIC, a policy-based financial institution wholly owned by the Japanese government. The regional coverage of the office includes UK, Ireland, Iceland, Israel and Anglophone and Lusophone African countries. Before taking up his current role, Tatsunori was in charge of equity investment at JBIC both on the execution and planning sides for more than ten years. Previously, he primarily worked on project and asset financing for infrastructure sectors (including power, transportation (ship and aircraft) and telecommunications).
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See also: Asia House Research report: Japan-UK Relations After Brexit
