2023/03/09

EANET joins forces in Mongolia with regional and global partners to fight air pollution at the High-Level Forum on Clean Air

9 March 2023 – Bangkok, Thailand

EANET, as one of the existing intergovernmental bodies in Asia, collaborated in the organization of the High-Level Forum on Clean Air, alongside the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Mongolia, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asian and the Pacific (ESCAP), and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from 2 to 3 March 2023. The Forum supported the operationalization of ESCAP’s recently adopted Asia-Pacific Regional Action Programme on Air Pollution (RAPAP).

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The High-Level Forum on Clean Air

The Forum gathered around 100 participants including high-level representatives from governments, national experts, researchers, and representatives from regional organizations working on air pollution.

Among key high-level representatives, H.E. Mr. Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai, Prime Minister of Mongolia; H.E. Mr. Naseer Ahamed, Minister of Environment of Sri Lanka; Ms. Armida Alisjahbana, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, and Ms. Dechen Tsering, Regional Director, Asia and the Pacific Office, UN Environment Programme, joined the hybrid event.

Watch the Opening Session

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The Forum aimed at presenting and discussing the implementation of the Asia-Pacific Regional Action Programme on Air Pollution (RAPAP), adopted at the 7th session of the ESCAP Committee on Environment and Development in 2022. Various sessions were organized, including a ministerial roundtable, sessions on air quality management, monitoring, best practices, capacity building, air quality data and standards, and partnerships through the RAPAP.

Stakeholders from a wide variety of countries, from Asia and beyond, organizations, and sectors shared their experience in actively leading air pollution-related actions, showing the abundance of expertise in the domain.

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Sharing EANET’s Long-term Expertise in Air-quality Monitoring and Capacity Building

The EANET, as a key regional intergovernmental organization for East Asia, along with the North-East Asia Clean Air Partnership (NEACAP), was invited to share its expertise in several sessions.

Prof. Meng Fan, Deputy Director-General of the Network Center for the EANET, shared EANET’s two decades of experience during Session 2: Air Quality Monitoring Session. He highlighted the trends of air pollution and acid deposition in the EANET region, including the decrease of sulphur dioxide over time, and the increase of ozone, in Southeast Asia specifically. He also explained the impacts of acidification in forests and inland waters in the region.

Watch Prof. Meng’s presentation (at 35’06’’)

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Mr. Bert Fabian, the Coordinator of the Secretariat for the EANET, was invited as a panelist in Session 3: Best Practice Sharing and Capacity Building. In his presentation, he explained the role of EANET in strengthening the data-science-policy link over the past two decades, highlighting the capacity-building and training activities achieved by the Network, and presented the new Project Activities in 2023. He called for increased cooperation amongst various partners in support of Project activities in 2024.

Mr. Kwon-Ho Jeon, a Senior coordinator at the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), Republic of Korea, presented NIER’s training activities particularly on the upcoming TNT and Capacity Building Program in 2023, a partnership between NIER and EANET.

Watch Mr. Fabian’s and Mr. Jeon’s presentations (at 4’20’’ and 11’53’’)

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The High-Level Forum offered a meeting point for many organizations and government representatives. Several stakeholders mentioned ongoing participation in the EANET, such as Ms. Uranchimeg Tserendorj the Director-General of the Natural Resources Policy Coordination Department from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Mongolia, and Undersecretary Juan Miguel Cuna of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Philippines.

EANET will explore opportunities to cooperate amongst various partners to complement the implementation of the RAPAP. EANET will continue to play a key role in Northeast and Southeast Asia in air quality and acid deposition management.

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Interested in finding out more about EANET’s monitoring activities and findings? Read the Fourth Periodic Report on the State of Acid Deposition in East Asia (PRSAD4).

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Photo credits: Ulaanbaatar by duku photography, free of rights, all videos: all rights reserved to Orgil Media.