Reverberating Beyond the Region in Addressing Air Pollution in North-East
Asia
Sangmin NAM and Heejoo LEEUNESCAP
Subregional Office for East and North-East Asia
Regional Environmental Governance
Ecological Interdependence: geographical proximity, climatic
contiguity and ecological interconnections
Common pool resources Shared environmental
resources
Mutual Vulnerability
Environmental Governance
•geographic proximity
•regularity and intensity of interactions
•shared perceptions of the region
Basic Foundation of Regional Cooperation
ASEAN Subregional Environment Programme (ASEP), 1977 South Asia Cooperative Environment Programme (SACEP), 1981South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), 1982
UNCED1992
REG mechanisms in North-East Asia: 1992-1999
(Sub)regional Environmental Governance in Asia and the Pacific
Mechanisms for Comprehensive Cooperation
NEASPEC (Northeast Asian Subregional Program for Environmental Cooperation) established in 1993, 6 countries
NEAC (Northeast Asian Conference on Environmental Cooperation) established in 1992, 5 countries (now discontinued)
TEMM (Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting) in 1999, 3 countries
Mechanisms for Governing the Commons
NOWPAP (Northwest Pacific Action Plan) in 1994, 4 countries EANET (Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia) in 1998, 13
countries LTP (Joint Research Project on Long Range Air Pollutants) in 1995, 3
countries East Asian Biosphere Reserve Network (EABRN) in 1994, 6
countries
Formal Mechanisms for REG in NEA
Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET)
7
Goal: reduce environmental impacts by acid deposition
Membership: covering 13 countries with 54 monitoring sites
1993, expert meeting
1998, intergovt’meeting
2012,Formal agreement-“Instrument”
Geographic scope: China, Japan and the Republic of Korea
Programme scope: Monitoring and modeling including S-R relationship
Subject scope: sulfur, nitrogen, PM, ozone and others
Long-range Transboundary Pollution (LTP)
Estimate emissions among three countries Research on monitoring and modeling Produce S-R relationships among countries
Establish a foundation for joint researchEstablish database on the concentration and
emissions of air pollutantsEstablish a modeling system
International cooperation for im
proving air quality in Northeast A
sia
Research on the impacts of NOx, O3, and PM
1st stage(’00~’04)
2nd stage(’05~’07)
3rd stage(’08~’12)
1995-99Establishing institutional foundation
Source: Lim-Seok, Chang (2011), Modeling results from LTP project
Long-range Transboundary Pollution (LTP)
Concentrations and
Physical and Chemical
Characteristics of Aerosol
Intensive Monitoring
Long Term Monitoring
Concentration of Gaseous and Aerosol
Modeling
Multi-models
Concentration and
Deposition
Uncertainties in Emission
Critical Load
Domestic and
Regional Control Policy
Source-Receptor
Relationship
Emission Inventor
y
Modeling S-R Relationship
• Satellite
• Airplane
• Ship•
Surface
• Point source
• Socioeconomic data
• Emission factors measurements
Modeling S-R Relationship
Modeling S-R Relationship
Monitoring Long-range Transport of Air Pollution
Monitoring Stations of LTP
Implication of Modeling and Monitoring• Value disparity exists among countries but significantly
narrowed • Not interference by politics in computing given data but
in advancing overall modeling exercise• scientific shortcomings in taking account of various
factors (seasonal variations, microclimatic conditions, nonlinear chemical reactions, etc)
• Updated data with better quality• Expanding data sharing with expansion of monitoring
stations• Expanding chemical species (O3, PM2.5, VOCs, POPs,
etc)
Technical measures
Implication in institutional context
• Conflicting national interests among initiators of each mechanism, and between source and receptor countries
• Limited model comparison work and policy linkage
• Limited participation of academic community, thereby weak epistemic community
Harnessing benefits of knowledge and experiences from other regions to strengthen consensual knowledge
NEA Atmospheric Governance: reverberate beyond the region
Targets NE Asia Europe
Acid deposition, Eeutrophication ○(EANET, LTP) EMEP
Photochemical Oxidnats ○(LTP, TEMM Project) EMEP
Heavy metals ○ (LTP) EMEP
POPs △(East Asia POPs Monitoring) EMEP
PM ○(LTP) EMEPIntegrated Modeling × EMEPEmission Inventory △(LTP, MICS-ASIA) EMEPEmission Process Model ○(LTP) EMEPOpenness × EMEP
Collboration with HF-TAP × EMEP(HTAP)
Identifying NEA’s linkages with emerging issues including Short-lived Climate Forcers (SLCF) including black carbon, methane, HFCs and tropospheric ozone
BC emissions: China: 1.5 million tons (CMA), Europe: 0.8 million tons (IIASA)
LTP and EANET: No related programme yet
NEA Atmospheric Governance: reverberate beyond the region
CLRTAP: TF HTAP and Expert Group on Black Carbon
Collaboration
Thank you