On September 1, 2022, Takeharu Yamanaka, Mayor of Yokohama welcomed Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, and his delegation on their visit to the Port of Yokohama. During their meeting, Mayors Yamanaka and Garcetti exchanged their views on cooperation toward developing carbon neutral ports and port digitalization.
The U.S.-Japan Joint Leaders’ Statement on April, 2021 (Attachment: U.S.-Japan Competitiveness and Resilience (CoRe) Partnership) announced that the United States and Japan have launched a new partnership to address climate change and to promote green, sustainable global growth and recovery, making full use of both countries’ technologies in the clean energy and other relevant sectors, which of course includes working toward achieving carbon neutrality in ports nationwide. Working off the statement, the U.S. and Japanese governments have conducted joint workshops toward decarbonization of ports, workshops which were attended by the Port of Los Angeles. Leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) from Japan, the United States, Australia, and India also declared the Quad Cooperation in Climate Change (https://www.mofa.go.jp/files/100347798.pdf), which includes the launch of the Quad Shipping Task Force alongside four ambitious inaugural ports (Los Angeles, Mumbai Port Trust, Sydney (Botany), and Yokohama) which recognize the importance of pursuing decarbonization efforts in shipping and port sectors. These initiatives between Japan and the U.S. led to Mayor Garcetti’s visit to Yokohama.
Both Yokohama and Los Angeles, as members of the global cities networks of C40 and the SDGs Leadership Cities Network, have been taking actions to confront the climate crisis and achieve the SDGs, and will continue these efforts into the future.
