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