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IF SIGNIFICANT changes in the development policies of east Asian countries donot come about, each country will sufferserious damages from global warming,acid rain and local air pollution, amongothers; and it is the environmentalNGOS in this region that should lead theway to initiate these changes. With thisagenda in mind, the AtmosphericAction Network of East Asia (AANEA)held its second meeting in Osaka, Japan,this March and adopted an action planof mutual cooperation. The AANEA,formed last year to network environmental NGOs, now consists of 19 groupsfrom China, Korea, Hong Kong,Mongolia, Far East Russia, Taiwan andJapan.
It is for the first time that suchcooperation was established among theregion's NGOS. At the meeting, guestspeaker Lando T Velasco of theSoutheast Asian Climate Networkpointed out that east Asian nations havea great influence on global climate, dueto the region's growing contribution togreenhouse emissions resulting from itsvarious economic activities.
In 1990, the average per capita carbon dioxide emission in the region was6.7 metric tonne - well above the percapita sustainable emission of 1.69tonne. Velasco also stated that theregion's very long coAtline makes itvery vulnerable to sea-level rise, thusendangering millions of people inhabiting the coastal areas and affecting theinfrastructure and economic base ofeast Asian countries.
Hye-Sook Park, assistant professorat Mie University in Japan, predictedthat emissions of sulphur dioxide willdouble by AD 2010 in this region if thenations do not alter their developmentand environment policies. However,reportedly, east Asia is the only place inthe world where regional cooperationamong nations is very sparse as theyhappen to be very diverse.
The Chinese presence in the meetwas significant. Said Zhang Haz-Bin,assistant professor at Beijing University,"In China, the Central governmentdominates everything. People tend tothink that it is the government, not theythemselves, that deliberatepolicies, so they do notshow any concern forenvironmental issues. Butas you can see, China is onthe road to democratisation, environmental NGOshave started their activities and the governmenthas begun to recognise them."
Ts Aduaysuren of Mongolia reported thatthe climate of Mongoliawas becoming drier andthe mean temperature hasactually increased by 1.8'cin the mountains dueto forest felling in China.Air pollution has alsoadversely affected humansand the environment inKhavarovsk in Far EastRussia, where infant mortality in 1992 stood at18.2 per 1,000 new-bornbabies.
In Hong Kong, the atmosphericparticulates are reported to be far abovethe acceptable levels. Respiratory diseases among children is 1.5 times higherthan those in non-industrial areas.Except for Japan and a few other countries, little has been done to slow downthe emissions of greenhouse gases.
During the second meeting ofAANEA, apart from member nations,delegates from the Philippines, Bangladesh, Fiji and Germany attended asguests. The meeting adopted the AANEAaction policy which recommends monitoring of air pollution by NGOS in thisregion using simple instruments; AANEAalso plans to send a delegation to theConference of Parties (cop)-2 for theGeneva climate talks this July tostrengthen cooperation between eastAsian NGOS to prepare for the COP-3 nextyear in Japan.