On 9 December 2019, representing signatory cities of the Covenant of Mayors JAPAN, City of Kyoto attended "Global Covenant of Mayors Day, a side event held in Madrid, Spain, on the COP 25 to the UNFCCC. With participation of mayors of local governments, NGOs, and research institutions, discussion was made on "Accelerating Action and Scaling Up Impact".

Mr. Shimotsuma, the Supervising Director of Global Environment and Energy, City of Kyoto, joined the panel discussion in Session 1 on the theme of "Making local climate and energy action count" as a panelist and reported Japanese cities’ climate policy actions. As of December 2019, there are 21 municipalities which had signed the Covenant of Mayors Japan, having the mayor of Kyoto City as the head of its steering committee. He also reported “2050 Zero Carbon Cities”, the latest climate emergency initiatives joined by Japanese local governments. A total of 27 local governments, with a total population of 43 million people or about 35% of Japan's total population, had announced policy directions aiming at net zero carbon emissions by 2050. He expressed his hope that these local governments’ actions will push the national government to be more ambitious towards COP26 stepping into implementation of the Paris Agreement.