LOCAL GOVERNMENT'S PERCEPTIONS ABOUT CLIMATE-CHANGE IMPACTS AND THEIR SEVERITIES

Abstract

 To grasp the local government's perceptions about climate-change impacts and implementation status of adaptation measures, a questionnaire survey was conducted to the environmental divisions of 47 prefectures and 1,741 municipalities, and 1,098 valid responses were gained. As for the severity recognition of climatechange impacts, the severity recognitions of heavy rain, increase in annual average temperature, and heat wave were high nationwide. By field, the severity recognitions of agriculture, river disasters, mountain disasters, and heat stroke were high. Based on these differences in recognition by field, the local governments were categorized into six clusters. For climate-change adaptation, about half of the respondents answered that they "heard it for the first time" or "not familiar with it", indicating that the awareness of climate-change adaptation is low. The formulation rate of climate-change adaptation plan and the establishment rate of adaptation center were extremely low; however, in the clusters that showed higher perceptions about climate-change impact severities, the recognition of adaptation and the status of adaptation plans and center establishment were higher than in other types. As specific adaptation measures, while many softtype measures have been taken, hardware measures have not progressed. More than 70% of the local governments answered that they lacked the budget, experience, and cooperation with experts for adaptation measures, and it was considered to be an issue for promoting adaptation measures in local governments.