How people realize temperature rise will have an effect on energy consumption in urban areas. Global warming and/or heat-island phenomenon could make us feel that temperature has risen in recent years. We conducted a survey in Shandong province in China. 500 people over 26 years old were asked several questions. We find that how they realize temperature rise depends neither on the maximum temperature of the year nor on the temperature trend in recent 20 years but on UHII (urban heat island intensity). Our empirical results suggest that mitigating heat-island phenomenon is also effective against global warming since it can be expected to reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emission in urban areas.

In Japan’s municipal-level decarbonization measures, there are two types of “promotion areas” stipulated by separate laws. The first type is the “areas subject to the regional decarbonization promotion project,” as stipulated by the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures (revised in 2021). The second type is the “promotion areas of renewable energy use for buildings,” as stipulated by the Act on the Improvement of Energy Consumption Performance of Buildings (revised in 2022). Both of these areas are designated by municipalities with the aim of decarbonizing their regions. However, it should be noted that due to the different institutional contexts in which these areas are stipulated, the legal frameworks applied are also different. Since both of these are sometimes abbreviated as “promotion areas” and can be easily confused, this report describes how these areas are designated and their current status in Japan.