The surface of the Earth is covered with the atmosphere, oceans, and land, and preserving this surface environment of the Earth is indispensable for creating a sustainable human society. However, human activity has caused changes in the climate, including not only rising average temperatures but also an increase in extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and damage to ecosystems and food production.
The international framework for climate change countermeasures, the Paris Agreement, has been adopted, and countries around the world are required to further measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Japan has also pledged to pursue net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and has adopted a “Climate Emergency Declaration” as a national effort.
We, the Earth System Division, as a group of professional researchers in the field of global environmental conservation, will contribute with the latest scientific knowledge to overcome the climate emergency and realize a sustainable global environment.
The Earth System Division was established in April 2021 in line with the start of NIES’ 5th Medium- to Long-Term Plan. By implementing research programs such as the newly launched strategic research program "Climate Change and Air Quality Research Program", our researchers will, in collaboration with scientists in Japan and overseas, work on a variety of research issues such as prediction of future changes in the global environment, assessment of risks, and development of advanced measurement technologies and models necessary for their research. Furthermore, the intellectual research infrastructure (long-term monitoring, databases, etc.) will continue to be maintained by the Center for Global Environmental Research (CGER) established in 1990. We will also work closely with the Satellite Observation Center that is responsible for the "IBUKI" (GOSAT) series of greenhouse gas observation satellites.
We will share our research activities and results more promptly and more widely than ever before. Our scientific findings and data will be actively disseminated to international frameworks such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Through the above activities, we will keep contributing to the realization of a sustainable global environment and human society.
Hiroshi TANIMOTO
Director
April 2025