Research Program for Accelerating Systems Change towards Carbon Neutrality, the Circular Economy, and a Nature-Positive future

The climate crisis is increasingly diverging from the internationally agreed avoidance targets, and the remaining time for response is extremely limited. Simply extending the efforts of conventional producers and consumers will make it difficult to protect future generations from environmental threats and enhance societal well-being, making a 'system change' that transforms the structure of society itself indispensable. However, the scientific foundation regarding the overall picture, timeline, and acceleration methods is still not sufficiently established. This program aims to advance decarbonization, resource circulation, and natural restoration simultaneously, and to achieve these as early as possible by systematically clarifying the structure of the necessary social transformations. First, it will construct an evaluation framework and a set of indicators that measure progress, including the value of natural capital, and set target values according to envisioned future societies. Furthermore, it will identically identify concrete aspects of system change from macro, meso, and micro perspectives, and develop institutional, policy, and technological measures to accelerate its realization, both quantitatively and descriptively. In addition, by broadly disseminating understanding of the risks caused by delays in system change, it aims to promote behavioral changes based on the roles of industry, government, and individuals, and to establish a scientific foundation that stimulates discussions on institutional design not only domestically but also internationally.