19 October 2023 – Bangkok, Thailand

The Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET) held its Twenty-third Session of the SAC (SAC23) Meeting from 10-12 October 2023, to discuss the progress of acid deposition and air pollution monitoring activities since 2022.

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Opening Session

Over 50 members of the SAC and/or their representatives from the Participating Countries, the Network Center, and the Secretariat for the EANET,  joined the virtual meeting.

The SAC23 started with Opening Remarks from Mr. Bert Fabian, Coordinator of the Secretariat for the EANET. He emphasized the significance of multilateralism in tackling environmental challenges and highlighted the upcoming 2024 UN Environment Assembly which will focus on climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. He welcomed the commitment of EANET countries to address acid deposition and air pollution through partnerships and initiatives.

Welcome Remarks were delivered by Dr. Shiro Hatakeyama, Director General of the Asia Center for Air Pollution Research (ACAP), the Network Center for the EANET.  Dr. Hatakeyama highlighted the importance of the activities conducted by researchers in the past year in the EANET, including the annual Data Report preparation, QA/QC activities, training, and joint research projects. He also emphasized the success of EANET’s capacity-building efforts and highlighted important agenda items for discussion during the session.

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Reporting on the Acid Deposition Monitoring data in 2022

Scientists from the Network Center for the EANET presented the results from activities of acid deposition monitoring, based on data provided by the EANET Participating Countries and retrieved from their national monitoring sites for 2022. These included wet, dry, soil and vegetation monitoring from all Participating Countries, as well as catchment-scale monitoring in Japan and the Philippines. The Draft EANET Data Report 2022 and the Draft Report on the Inter-laboratory Comparison Projects in 2022 were both presented and adopted at the Session.

The Network Center also presented an overview of the National Monitoring Plans of the Participating Countries for 2023, based on the submissions made during the recent Twenty-fourth Senior Technical Managers’ Meeting (STM24) on the EANET.

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Discussing administrative issues supporting EANET’s further development

Finally, the SAC23 members were also invited to comment, from the scientific viewpoint, on other important documents including,  the Draft EANET Progress and Financial Reports, the Work Programme and Budget for 2024, the Draft Mid-Term Review of the EANET MTP, the proposed revision of the EANET’s Administrative and Project Guidelines, and the EANET Project Plans submitted for 2024, before approval at the IG25 of EANET, to be held in Hanoi, Viet Nam, in November 2023.

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Access EANET Data, read the Report of SAC23, and view the online meeting’s photos on Flickr.

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Photo credits: featured image of Chuya River (2023) by Sergey Korolev; other images: all rights reserved to EANET.