30 November 2021 – Bangkok, Thailand
The Twenty-third Session of the Intergovernmental Meeting on the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (IG23) took place from 24 to 25 November 2021, virtually, and gathered over 70 representatives of the EANET Participating Countries, Secretariat, and Network Center for the EANET, to make important decisions on the expansion of the scope of the EANET, among other topics.
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The IG23 Meeting
Chaired by Japan and co-chaired by Malaysia and Viet Nam, the IG23 started with the Opening Remarks from H.E. Mr. Yutaka Shoda, Vice-Minister, Ministry of the Environment, Japan, followed by Opening Remarks by Dr. Dechen Tsering, Regional Director, United Nations Environment Programme for Asia & the Pacific, and by Dr. Shiro Hatakeyama, Director General, Asia Center for Air Pollution Research.
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Historical Decisions on the Expansion of the Scope of the EANET
Following the decision of the Twenty-second Session of the Intergovernmental Meeting (IG22), held in November 2020, the EANET Participating Countries’ representatives have been working relentlessly on the process to expand the scope of the EANET, from acid deposition to also include a wider scope of atmospheric environment-related substances.
This historical progress required the EANET to develop a text supplementary document to the EANET Instrument, to define the scope of expansion and the target substances to be included in the EANET activities. In a landmark decision, 20 years after the creation of the Network, the IG23 has adopted the text of the Supplementary Document (Annex) to the Instrument for Strengthening the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia.
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The EANET Project Fund and Project Guideline, a new financial mechanism allowing EANET to build co-financed projects with partners in the region and beyond, has also been approved by the IG23.
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Ways Forward
In addition to these major decisions, the IG23 has also approved several important documents, including the Work Program and Budget of the EANET in 2022, and the Summary of the Twentieth Anniversary of the EANET publication, a new outreach document detailing the EANET’s past achievements and future opportunities.
As an important way forward for 2022, the EANET Participating Countries and partner organizations will be invited to start preparing and submitting project proposals for the pilot implementation of new EANET projects, in line with the EANET Project Guideline.
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Read the IG23’s Report of the Session (including the Decisions of IG23 in Annex 2), and discover the virtual meeting’s pictures on Flickr.
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Photos credits: all rights reserved to EANET.
