8/9/2022　Sado City, Niigata

The research team under Research Theme 2 (Co-learning mechanism) organized the “De-carbonization and Future Workshop in Sado, Niigata,” on August 9. A total of 45 people participated from junior high and high schools in Sado Island.

The workshop started by raising participants’ awareness of the current situation around Sado City. Experts from the research team introduced the Future Chart 2050 and the Carbon Neutral Simulator, both developed by the research team, to give a broader idea of what would happen in coming decades when the participants grew up. Factors of societal transformation, such as population, energy supply and demand, regional industry, and workforce were incorporated into the simulation and modeling of the Future Chart 2050 and the Carbon Neutral Simulator.

Then, participants were appointed as Mayor of “Future Sado City” and assigned to formulate possible policy options for Sado’s sustainable future. They took a back-casting approach when working in small groups, which was to define the goal of how the future Sado City would look or what they wanted it to be, then identify the gap between the goal and the current position and discuss what actions they should take “now” to reach that state. Discussion among local participants tended to lead to a narrow view, or sometimes getting stuck, due to a lack of knowledge or experience. To provide them with broader perspectives and technical advice, experts and university students from Tokyo interacted with the participants and assisted in the discussion. At the end of the workshop, each group summarized their discussion into policy recommendations and proposed it to the “present” city government as a message from the future.