Professor Morita's expertise lies in "environmental governance" and "environmental finance" based on international relations. This is an academic field that goes beyond mere legal and regulatory frameworks. It considers how to create systems that do not destroy the global environment while understanding the interests of various related entities. At its core, it is an extremely jitsugaku (science) study of "how to make players who are facing in different directions look toward the same goal and take action."

Professor Morita points out that the biggest reason climate change issues remain unresolved is that there are too many entities involved, each with different "correct answers" and interests.

For example, if a company consumes a large amount of fossil fuels or destroys ecosystems such as forests to manufacture products, it places a burden on the environment. However, if regulations are suddenly imposed without preparation, that company's management may falter, potentially leading to unemployment. This could also result in a decrease in tax revenue for national and local governments. On the other hand, if corporate economic activities continue to be prioritized, climate change and ecosystem destruction will continue to progress, and ultimately, environmental degradation will adversely affect corporate economic activities as well.

How can different entities all face the same direction? It becomes important to create mechanisms (platforms) where diverse players such as national and local governments, large corporations, and international organizations can collaborate beyond their respective interests.

To achieve this, we must not be satisfied with "stopgap measures" such as planting a few trees. We must step into radical discussions on how to transform the structures of exploitation that have continued since the colonial era and the model of capitalism itself that wastes resources. Professor Morita emphasizes this point strongly.

Research results show that in today's world, the CO2 emitted by the top 10% of the wealthy accounts for approximately half of total emissions. From the perspective of developing countries with low emissions, it would be difficult to gain understanding if one tries to restrict the economic activities of countries that want to develop economically in the future without restricting the emissions of the wealthy.

"People in every country have the right to become wealthy and enjoy convenience. On the other hand, if we continue to destroy the environment at this rate, resources will run out, and environmental problems will adversely affect people's health and economic activities. We must think about how to circulate money to realize a sustainable society for the entire world."

Therefore, Professor Morita places particular importance on "private finance." "There are limits to public funds. The key lies in creating mechanisms to guide vast amounts of private finance toward the environment and sustainable development."

Behind Professor Morita's choice of this path is an unforgettable sight: Tuvalu, a South Pacific island nation she visited during her student days.

Located in the South Pacific and consisting of nine coral reef islands, Tuvalu is said to be the "first country in the world to sink" due to rising sea levels caused by climate change. Its land area is approximately 26 square kilometers, roughly the same as Shinagawa Ward in Tokyo. The people living here have led simple lives, cherishing the blessings of nature and sharing the fish they catch with everyone.

Visiting this country when she was a graduate student became a decisive turning point for Professor Morita.

In Tuvalu, the problem was that seawater was entering the soil, making it impossible for crops to grow. While life was sustained by financial aid from developed countries and international organizations, this was causing changes in culture and values.

Local people had almost no sense of trying to make a profit, and perhaps because many are Christians, some believed regarding the effects of climate change like sea-level rise that "a flood will not come, so it's okay" based on descriptions in the Old Testament. She realized that the values she held were merely a sense unique to Japan.

While developed countries are the ones emitting CO2, it is the people of Tuvalu, living frugal lives, who are being affected. From the experience of glimpsing such irrationality, she felt deeply that "without seeing the field, one cannot imagine what kind of impacts climate change will have."

Professor Morita's father, Tsuneyuki Morita, was a prominent climate change researcher, and she says she had vaguely wanted to "become a researcher" since she was in elementary school. Her research style of actively visiting developing countries, rather than just staring at documents and data at a desk, was also influenced by her father. Following his teaching to "not just read books, but actually see developing countries while you are young," she used the money intended for her coming-of-age ceremony kimono for travel expenses and visited various places.

At the Keio University Faculty of Policy Management, where she enrolled, she focused on economics but struggled in the world of facing mathematical formulas in economics and finance.

Nevertheless, her desire to learn only increased, and she studied a wide range of subjects including international relations and international development.

Then, by visiting Tuvalu during her graduate school years, the goal she should pursue for the rest of her life was set.

"On the ground, I witnessed an economic society that had no choice but to rely on support. At that moment, I became convinced that the flow of money (finance) would be the key to solving environmental problems."

Nearly 200 countries and regions participate in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), established in 1988. The assessment reports published by the IPCC every five to seven years aggregate scientific knowledge from around the world, with the primary purpose of providing a scientific basis for the climate change policies of various governments from a policy-neutral standpoint.

In the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, Professor Morita became a lead author for Working Group III (Mitigation of Climate Change: measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or increase removals) and was in charge of the chapter on "Investment and Finance." The report is finally completed after collecting and evaluating scientific literature such as the latest peer-reviewed papers from around the world, writing drafts, and undergoing three reviews. It gathers the wisdom of researchers and, through long hours of discussion and literature evaluation, shows the world the outlook for climate change and the required efforts.

The Working Group III report published in 2022 indicates that to achieve the goal of "holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C," early and deep greenhouse gas emission reductions are necessary, and social system transformation is required for that purpose. There are relatively low-cost options for climate change mitigation, and finance is one of the critical elements for deploying them on a large scale. However, sufficient funds necessary for climate change measures are not flowing, and the report also showed methods for directing financial flows, including private finance, toward climate change measures.

While feeling the dilemmas of various countries' interests that are not straightforward, Professor Morita says, "There is no time. I want to think about what we can do together while exchanging information with various fields across borders. Because methods to solve the problem still exist."

After also serving as a lead author for the Transformative Change Assessment of IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), an international scientific assessment organization for biodiversity, she is currently working on writing a new report as a lead author for the finance chapter of the IPCC Seventh Assessment Report Working Group III. In December 2025, the first lead author meeting was held with Professor Morita in attendance, and discussions toward the Seventh Assessment Report began.

As a researcher who is rare globally for bridging policy and science in both the fields of climate change and biodiversity, she leads international discussions.

What Professor Morita feels deeply in international conferences and joint research is the difference in "how problems are perceived" between Japan and the West.

Japanese researchers and companies tend to achieve excellent results in individual technological developments and specific cases (details). For example, individual cases such as energy-saving technologies are something to be proud of globally. However, Professor Morita says that Western researchers start by drawing a massive grand design of "how to change the entire social system" by connecting the individual elements necessary for building a sustainable society.

"While various fields of environmental research are developing, I feel that in the past, Japan also used to discuss the whole of society involving more diverse people. I believe that today's Japanese students and researchers are required to have a perspective that overlooks the entire system, returning to the original philosophy of 'what was sustainability in the first place?'"

What Professor Morita cherishes is a sense of crisis that the decision-making of today's adults could deprive young people of their options 20 years from now.

When she was a child, there was an environment where she could challenge various things, but now there are days when pool classes cannot be held at elementary schools because the summer is too hot.

"As environmental problems such as climate change become more serious, older people might be able to escape, but the younger generation might become unable to do the jobs they want to do, or might become unable to go abroad freely due to global chaos. I believe the older generation must radically change the social system itself so that people born in the future can choose what they want to do."

Composition: Toru Tamakawa, Editor-in-Chief, Asahi Shimbun GLOBE+

Interview/Text: Nasuka Yamamoto

Photography: Hidehiro Yamada