April 28–29, 2025 – Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR

Policymakers, experts, and development partners from across Southeast Asia gathered in Vientiane for a two-day Inter-ministerial Workshop to enhance regional cooperation on air pollution under the Clean Air for Sustainable ASEAN (CASA) Initiative. The event also served as EANET’s National Awareness Workshop for the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.

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Lao PDR’s Ongoing Commitment to EANET

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic joined the EANET in 2002, shortly after the EANET’s inception as a formal intergovernmental initiative in January 2001. With its inclusion, EANET expanded to 13 Participating Countries, enabling Lao PDR to conduct harmonized acid deposition and atmospheric monitoring through the establishment of its first monitoring station in Vientiane and contribute its data as part of the EANET network. In May 2023, Vientiane hosted a national stakeholder workshop to celebrate two decades of EANET, raise awareness among Lao government agencies and NGOs, and discuss capacity-building in areas like QA/QC, ambient data analysis, and haze management. Recently, Lao PDR also participated in the EANET’s technical training activities including through support from the Network Center experts at the Asia Center for Air Pollution Research (ACAP) on wet-sampler maintenance, ion-chromatography guidance, and PM2.5 monitoring during technical missions in December 2023. The Inter-ministerial Workshop to Address Air Pollution allowed EANET to better understand the challenges faced by Lao PDR on air pollution and to strengthen relations between EANET and Lao PDR.

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The Inter-ministerial Workshop to Address Air Pollution Through Regional Cooperation

Organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) with support from the ASEAN-Korea Cooperation Fund, the workshop brought together representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Lao Ministries of Natural Resources and Environment, and of Agriculture and Forestry, the ASEAN Secretariat, the Secretariat for the EANET, and key United Nations representatives including from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). Over 50 participants joined both in person and online.

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Knowledge Exchange and Technology in Air Quality Management

The workshop focused on knowledge exchange on best practices in air quality monitoring, policy development, and the use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.

It began with introductory presentations by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Natural Resources and Environment Research Institute) and by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Department of Agriculture Extension and Cooperative) of Lao PDR and continued with country presentations from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand on their progress and challenges in tackling air pollution. This was followed by interventions by United Nations representatives and regional partners including presentations by ESCAP, EANET Secretariat, and UNICEF. Session 5, entitled “Good Practices of How to Use Digital Technology for Air Pollution,” included presentations by the Korea Environmental Professional Engineers Association (KEPEA), the Center for Earth System Modeling and Prediction (CEMC) from the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), and the College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman. A roundtable discussion then explored how to enhance regional cooperation and align local and central actions for cleaner air.

On the second day, participants visited a CASA-supported Air Quality Monitoring Station in Vientiane to see real-time air quality data systems in action.

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Priorities for Action: Data and Public Engagement

Through presentations, roundtable discussions, and the site visit, participants explored practical tools to address the region’s growing air pollution challenges. Two core priorities emerged from the discussions: enhancing technical capacity to leverage digital tools for synthesizing air quality data, and building communication strategies to improve the public access to information and raise awareness on air pollution issues.

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These insights will inform future CASA activities and ESCAP programming, as well as the EANET discussions for the preparation of the draft Medium-Term Plan (2026–2030) on the EANET.

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Access more information and the workshop’s presentations.

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Photo credits: all rights reserved to ESCAP.