[Day 1] Get a speech directly from Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States! Climate Reality Leadership Community Tokyo Training]

Hi there, it's Minami.

The other day, October 2 and 3, 2019, I

I participated in

Climate Reality Leadership Tokyo Corps training

The two days of training are going to be long, so in this article I'd like to show you what happened on day one.

It's a very valuable experience! I've done so and will be sharing it with you in this article.

What is Climate Reality Leadership Community Tokyo Training?

This is a training program to learn how to take the first step to actually take action to change the world, while gaining knowledge about global warming and climate change, which have been progressing rapidly in recent years, as written on the official website.

From the United States, where the founder of this training, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, is from, to Europe and other parts of the world, the training has been conducted in many countries.

The October 2019 training was a memorable first inning with two trains.

The training consisted of two complete days, with the first day focusing on gaining knowledge.

I will introduce you to the actual process of the process, including some brief impressions.

The real treat was Al Gore's 2+ hour speech

First of all, I listened to a speech by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, which was one of the highlights of the event.

To begin with, the fact that you can meet the former vice president of the United States is purely amazing, isn't it? What's more, all of these events are free except for transportation and lodging, so it's a great feeling of being give-and-take.

It was scheduled to be 2 hours, but I think he spoke for 2 hours and 30 minutes in total. 2 hours of speech is amazing just to hear it.

In fact, the booklet that was left on the table before the training started included a slide show that was pre-written and accompanied by the memo pages.

His slide show is full of graphs, photos, and other sources of information.

To be honest, his speeches are amazing in their ability to persuade people, partly because he was active in the political world.

This is going to be worth it even for people who are no longer interested in climate change, just to see how the speeches are delivered.

But, to be honest, isn't it a bit overstated? So, if you have data you are interested in or want to use for university research, be sure to look for the original data. It's a great way to learn about yourself.

Still, it's worthwhile enough to know about a lot of things and what's going on in the world.

Personally, the highlight is when I learned that the reason for Venus' high average temperature is not the distance from the sun, but the amount of carbon dioxide, and I was horrified to realize that carbon dioxide really does change the temperature.

All the rice is also on the vegetarian menu. It's all delicious.

I'm not a vegetarian, so this is only the second time I've eaten a vegetarian menu with that in mind (the first time was in Omotesando, a fancy restaurant), and I was shocked by the sheer variety!

Lo and behold, snacks were also being prepared for tea time. It was cake, but this was also vegan. Of course, to avoid using disposable items, the cups are made of glass and the plates are made of pottery.

Deepen your understanding of the Paris Agreement and clean energy

At Climate Training, a knowledgeable person spoke at the session. The first session we heard was "Global Cooperation - Paris Agreement, Sustainable Development Goals and Global Carbon Budget".

Participating organizations included the Global Environment Facility, a professor from Keio University, a member of the Climate Change Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and a professor from the Future Vision Research Center of the University of Tokyo.

I'm not sure what was decided in the Paris Agreement after all. It was a very useful session for such people.

Clean energy is something that's becoming a major thing now, isn't it?

It is easy to understand even for those who do not deal with the environment on a practical level, but what is happening now? I was able to learn about what it means to be a student.

Discussion of Japanese coal, an internationally recognized problem, also

This is a topic that is difficult to hear from an expert, isn't it?

People from the Natural Energy Foundation, Neutral Corporation, NPO Climate Network, and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Ltd.

Japan is the only country in the world that continues to use coal as an energy source within the framework of developed countries. Minister of the Environment Koizumi also stated on the news the other day that he would reduce the amount of coal-fired power generation.

In the last COP, there was an image of Prime Minister Abe wearing a costume and campaigning against coal. It's not very noticeable in Japan, but if you're interested in it, look for it and you'll find it.

There were a lot of groups that had a little bit of a responsibility to participate in the event, but it may have been a delicate topic, but everyone was frank and talked about it.

Also speaking on the stage were Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities, NPP, AEON, and the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.　The theme was "Enabling the future of clean energy: opportunities and challenges"

It's mainly about renewable energy.

What struck me personally as particularly striking was the statement by Aeon Co.

I think it's important to show and bring to light the fact that we are working on these environmental issues, rather than prioritizing whether or not we can reach the goals we have set for ourselves at the national and global levels and whether or not we can ensure that our companies are profitable.

When it comes to large companies at the level of Aeon, there is a leadership that leads the companies around it, so I thought that such companies and organizations have a very bright future ahead of them.

Aeon is part of the RE100 (use of all renewable energy for energy reduction), so there's a lot to learn.

Even on an individual level, I think we should be confident that we can create opportunities for other people around us to take an interest in a person by looking at that person, rather than thinking that one person can't change anything.

Afterwards, we'll do some networking.

There were so many people there that it was impossible to network with all of them, but I was still able to have fresh conversations with many of them.

Some of them are actually engaged in activities related to the environment, while others are wondering if they can do something by combining work and environment that they will do in the future...etc.

After participating in the first day, I was able to (1) listen to Mr. Al Gore's direct speech, (2) hear the thoughts of experts and practitioners in detail in the session, and (3) hear the thoughts of experts and practitioners in detail.

I think it's especially important in this case (3).

The number of people working on the environment in Japan is still very small, especially compared to other countries overseas. In such a situation, I think it is quite good for the spirit and society to be able to meet people who are interested in it in one place.

How did you like the article?

Nowadays, you can find most of the information about knowledge on the Internet, but even so, you have to learn by yourself what information to look for.

The second day's article will be posted here again at a later date, so please wait a little longer.