the developments of sustainable technologies in Japanese automobile industry

Automobile industry is expected to play a key role in the global climate governance. This is because, first, the road transport sector accounts for about 16% of the total global CO2 emissions, with expected growth from 4 gigatonnes in 2000 to more than 9 gigatonnes in 2050. Second, the industry operates globally with its economic significance that could potentially give a rise to their political power over the international climate negotiations. Japan in particular, is the biggest automobile manufacturing nation as well as one of the key players in the international climate negotiations, and therefore has the potential to affect changes towards more sustainable road transportation sector on a global level. Against these backgrounds, this paper asks how the automobile industry can be the driver to push towards low-carbon society, especially through their developments of the sustainable technologies. To do so, this paper examines how Japanese public policies and business strategies have been influenced the developments of sustainable technologies in the automobile industry. As a result, it emphasises two factors that can be identified as the driving forces of Japanese sustainable technological innovation in the sector. First, technological innovation has been backed up by domestic fuel economy regulations, which can be characterised as ‘co-regulation’ between the government and the industry. Second, two international factors, environmental standards of importing countries, as well as differing trends in technological innovations in other major automobile producing countries – namely Europe and United States – have encouraged technological innovation in the Japanese industry. Based on these findings, this paper argues that there is need for more international governance that would further encourages the business competition for sustainable technologies amongst the major automobile manufacturing nations, in order to push for the low-carbon society at the global level

チキュウ オンダンカ セイサク ノ サイゼンセン カッコク オンシツ コウカ ガス サクゲン スウチ モクヒョウ ト ジキ ワクグミ ニ ムケタ コクサイ コウショウ ノ カダイ ト テンボウ

京都議定書が規定していない2013年以降の次期枠組みへの合意が焦点となった第15回気候変動枠組条約締約国会議(以下、COP15)はコペンハーゲン合意(Copenhagen Accord)に「留意(take note)」する形で閉幕した。この合意では、先進国全体の削減目標数値の具体的な記載がなく、最大の争点となった先進国全体の中期目標の具体的な数値の記載もなく、法的拘束力も明記されていない。その代わりに先進国はそれぞれが自主的に誓約している2020年までの排出削減目標を、途上国は削減行動を個々に設定して事務局に提出することを定めたのみである。このような背景をふまえ、本稿では各国がこれまでどのような経緯を経て温室効果ガス排出削減目標を設定してきたのかを明らかにし、次期枠組みに向けた各国の動きを整理した。この結果、米国上院温暖化対策法案などの廃案により今後の国際交渉への悪影響が予想される一方で、途上国が自主的に削減目標を設定する動きがあることが明らかとなった。このことにより、自主的ではあるが各国が削減数値目標を設定することを定めたコペンハーゲン合意が今後の交渉の一つの重要な指針となる可能性を指摘する

チキュウ オンダンカ コウショウ ニ オケル ジキ ワクグミ ノ イチコウサツ COP 15 イコウ ノ コウショウ テキスト ノ ブンセキ オ チュウシン ニ

2010年12月にメキシコのカンクンにて開催された第16回国連気候変動枠組条約締約国会議(COP16)は2011年12月に南アフリカのダーバンで開催予定の第17回国連気候変動枠組条約締約国会議(COP17)での次期枠組みへの合意を目指す「カンクン合意」を採択して閉幕した。次期枠組みは京都議定書が規定していない2012年以降の国際的な温暖化対策を各国に課すものであるため、COP17までに一刻も早い合意が期待されている。本稿では2009年12月にデンマークのコペンハーゲンで開催された第15回国連気候変動枠組条約締約国会議(COP15)にまで遡り、現在に至るまでの交渉テキストの変化を分析する。その際、[1]気温目標に関する扱いと2050年までの締約国の温室効果ガス(GHG)排出削減目標、[2]先進国のGHG排出ピークアウト並びに2020年までの中期目標、[3]途上国のGHG排出削減目標、の3点を軸に分析する。この研究の結果、削減目標に関する議論においてはCOP15で交渉されたものからあまり進展が見られず、また各国が掲げている自主目標と科学の求める削減数値の間に大きなギャップが生じていることが判明した。そのため、各国はCOP17までにコペンハーゲン合意に提出した自主削減目標よりも高い目標設定をすることが求められていることが伺える

キコウ ヘンドウ モンダイ ニ オケル チキュウ カンキョウ ガバナンス COP17 デノ ギロン ノ キケツ ト テンボウ

本稿は2011年12月に南アフリカのダーバンで開催された第17回国連気候変動枠組条約締約国会議(COP17)における会議プロセスに注目する。京都議定書によって義務づけられている削減目標の期間は2012年で終了するため、COP17では2013年以降の国際的な温暖化対策への一刻も早い合意が期待されていたという意味で重要な会議であった。このような背景に対し、本稿では締約国が自主的にボトムアップ式で目標や対策を決めるという流れと、締約国が法的拘束力のもとに一定のトップダウンで目標や対策を定めていくという、二つの流れに着目しながらCOP17における交渉プロセスを詳細に分析する。この結果、COP17では法的拘束力を持たず、あくまで自主的にボトムアップ方式で温暖化対策を目指したコペンハーゲン合意から、法的拘束力のある次期枠組みへの交渉に向けて舵を切った会議であったことが分かった。つまり、COP17ではすべての国が法的拘束力のある枠組みの中で科学的知見に沿った削減目標を掲げるという機会を提供したといえる。このような結果を踏まえ、今後においてはトップダウンとボトムアップの両者のバランスを考慮した「衡平性」の議論が交渉の中で重要な論点になることを提起する

Integration and Diffusion in Sustainable Development Goals: Learning from the Past, Looking into the Future

One of the next major challenges for research and policy on sustainability is setting the post-2015 Development Agenda. This challenge arises as a direct result of the formal ending of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015 and as an outcome of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). The post-2015 Development Agenda is expected to include two agendas: one on human well-being to advance the MDG targets and the other on planetary well-being, which requires a safe "operating space" within the Earth\u27s life-support system. In contrast to the MDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are meant to apply to both developing and developed countries and create a space for development within the stable functioning of the Earth\u27s systems. However, what might this all look like? For answers, this paper reviews the achievements and reflections of the MDGs to date and identifies new challenges entailed in the shift of development goals from "millennium" to "sustainable". While most of the existing studies look at these two sets of issues separately, combining the two reveals two important features of the SDGs. First, SDGs need to integrate both human and planetary well-being in a goal, and second, goals, or sub-goals, need to be formulated at multiple levels, from global to local levels. While the MDGs represented no integrated goals, some of the existing proposals on SDGs include integrated goals. However, our analysis has shown that they do not present the vertical diffusion of goals. Considering both integration and diffusion in the architecture of SDGs is a remaining task

Correction: Kanie, N., et al. Integration and Diffusion in Sustainable Development Goals: Learning from the Past, Looking into the Future. Sustainability 2014, 6, 1761?1775

The authors wish to make the following correction, due to a typographical error, to this paper [1]. On page 1761, the author name “Shunsuke Mangagi” should be “Shunsuke Managi”. [...

Extracellular nanovesicles for packaging of CRISPR-Cas9 protein and sgRNA to induce therapeutic exon skipping

Prolonged expression of the CRISPR-Cas9 nuclease and gRNA from viral vectors may cause off-target mutagenesis and immunogenicity. Thus, a transient delivery system is needed for therapeutic genome editing applications. Here, we develop an extracellular nanovesicle-based ribonucleoprotein delivery system named NanoMEDIC by utilizing two distinct homing mechanisms. Chemical induced dimerization recruits Cas9 protein into extracellular nanovesicles, and then a viral RNA packaging signal and two self-cleaving riboswitches tether and release sgRNA into nanovesicles. We demonstrate efficient genome editing in various hard-to-transfect cell types, including human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, neurons, and myoblasts. NanoMEDIC also achieves over 90% exon skipping efficiencies in skeletal muscle cells derived from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patient iPS cells. Finally, single intramuscular injection of NanoMEDIC induces permanent genomic exon skipping in a luciferase reporter mouse and in mdx mice, indicating its utility for in vivo genome editing therapy of DMD and beyond

Pyrroloquinoline quinone prevents oxidative stress-induced neuronal death probably through changes in oxidative status of DJ-1.

Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) has been shown to play a role as an anti-oxidant in neuronal cells and prevent neuronal cell death in a rodent stroke model. DJ-1, a causative gene product for a familial form of Parkinson's disease, plays a role in anti-oxidative stress function by self-oxidation of DJ-1. In this study, the expression level and oxidation status of DJ-1 were examined in SHSY-5Y cells and primary cultured neurons treated with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) or H(2)O(2) in the presence or absence of PQQ. The pI shift of DJ-1 to an acidic point, which was observed in SHSY-5Y cells treated with 6-OHDA, was inhibited by PQQ. TOF-MS analyses showed that while the level of a reduced form of DJ-1, one of the active forms of DJ-1, was decreased in SHSY-5Y cells treated with 6-OHDA or H(2)O(2), PQQ increased the level of the reduced form of DJ-1. These results suggest that PQQ prevents oxidative stress-induced changes in oxidative status of DJ-1. Therefore, the neuroprotective effects of PQQ on oxidative stress-induced neuronal death may be at least in part involved in increased level of an active form of DJ-1