June 11, Manila – The incorporation papers of the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) Center were signed today at ADB Headquarters in Manila, establishing the Center as an independent legal entity. This event marks an important step in the struggle for clean air in Asia. Through its new status as an independent organization, the CAI-Asia Center will be able to take more proactive efforts in facilitating and strengthening the air quality management (AQM) agenda at the local, national, and regional levels.

ÿÿ

CAI-Asia Center Incorporators and Witnesses (from L-R): Charles Melhuish, Bebet Gozun, Glynda Bathan, Rita O'Sullivan (witness), Francis Estrada, Masami Tsuji (witness), Cornie Huizenga

The creation of the CAI-Asia Center is the culmination of the hard work of hundreds of individuals in different countries in Asia, and it is a tribute to efforts of the late Mr. Kong Ha of the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department who served as the Chairperson of CAI-Asia from 2004 to 2006 and who played a key role in establishing the credibility of CAI-Asia.

"My predecessor, Mr. Kong Ha, would have been very proud to see CAI-Asia come this far," says Acting CAI-Asia Partnership Chairperson Bebet Gozun. "We dedicate this ceremony to his memory."

"It is wonderful to see that CAI-Asia has been so effective in bringing organizations and people together to address air quality in the Asian region," says Charles Melhuish, who as the project officer in ADB was responsible for helping to launch CAI-Asia in 2001.

The CAI-Asia Center will be overseen by a 7-person Board of Trustees consisting of (i) Francis Estrada, the President of the Asian Institute of Management; (ii) Elisea (Bebet) Gozun, former Secretary of the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources; (iii) Daniel Greenbaum, President of the Health Effects Institute in the United States; (iv) Shreekant Gupta, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Delhi; (v) Jiming Hao, Dean of the Institute of Environmental Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University; (vi) Cornie Huizenga, Interim Executive Director of the CAI-Asia Center; and (vii) Charles Melhuish, former Lead Transport Specialist at ADB.

The CAI-Asia Center will function as the regional secretariat of the CAI-Asia Partnership , a non-binding, multi-stakeholder network of government agencies, NGOs, research institutions, international organizations, and private sector firms committed to improving air quality in Asia. "The CAI-Asia Center will always be there to assist the CAI-Asia Partnership," Bebet Gozun adds. "There is much more we need to do in solving the problems of air pollution and climate change. I encourage all partners to give their full support to the Center."

CAI-Asia began in 2001 through a joint launch in Bangkok by ADB, the World Bank, and the US Agency for International Development / US-Asia Environmental Partnership (USAID/USAEP). Its mandate is to promote and demonstrate innovative ways to improve the air quality in Asian cities through partnerships and sharing experiences. CAI-Asia has been able to develop because of the generous assistance provided by ADB over the last six years which included hosting the CAI-Asia secretariat as well as support received from a range of other donors and sponsors including the World Bank, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and Shell.

Important achievements in the history of CAI-Asia:

• The Better Air Quality (BAQ) workshops in 2002 (Hong Kong) , 2003 (Manila) , 2004 (Agra, India) and 2006 (Yogyakarta, Indonesia) are the flagship events of CAI-Asia, attracting hundreds of stakeholders from all over the world. Now held every two years, BAQ is known by many as the biggest and most anticipated event on AQM in the region.
• CAI-Asia Local Networks have been created in China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam. The local networks are instrumental in providing updated information on the status of AQM in their respective countries, and are crucial in convening important meetings between government and civil society on air pollution issues.
• The publication of the Country Synthesis Reports on urban air quality management for 17 countries and one city. This was the first time that simultaneous reports describing the status and management of urban air quality were published for all major Asian countries.
• The CAI-Asia website now hosts over 4,000 documents and links on AQM, sustainable transport, energy efficiency, and climate change and which is now the main information source on urban air quality management in Asia.
• CAI-Asia organized in December 2006 the First Governmental Meeting on AQM in Asia , in cooperation with UNEP, UNCRD and the Indonesian Ministry of Environment. This high-level meeting among senior government officials discussed optimal air pollution abatement strategies and resulted in the approval of the Yogyakarta Summary.

The CAI-Asia Center will partner with the ADB through the signing of a letter of agreement to implement the Sustainable Urban Mobility in Asia project, for which ADB has received funding from the Swedish Government. Other new projects of the CAI-Asia Center are currently under discussion with different donor organizations. The CAI-Asia Center in the future will integrate energy efficiency in its activities as part of a co-benefits approach which links air quality management and climate change mitigation. In addition to the existing 7 local networks the CAI-Asia Center also expects to start up a local network in India in the next months.

Supat Wangwongwatana, Director General of the Thailand Pollution Control Department and former CAI-Asia Chairperson, says, "I’m happy to see that the CAI-Asia Center is off to such a strong start. I’m honored to have been involved in the process. I will continue to devote my time in support of its work. A great pleasure indeed."

"The CAI-Asia Center and the CAI-Asia Partnership is literally a dream come true for me," says Cornie Huizenga, Interim Executive Director of the CAI-Asia Center. "It was the hard work of all of the staff of the CAI-Asia Secretariat over the last years which has made this possible. We hope and expect that with the new Center that we will be even better able to engage the air quality community find better ways to reduce air pollution and help mitigate the impacts of climate change."

Glynda Bathan, Head of CAI-Asia’s Strategic Linkages Division, is optimistic that the Center will continue to be relevant not just regionally but also in globally. "Air quality management, ultimately, are global concerns," she says. "But we need to take action on the ground. We need to mobilize individuals and organizations at the local and national levels to effectively contribute to the achievement of regional and international air pollution reduction and climate change mitigation goals. And CAI-Asia is proud to be at the frontline to help achieve this."

For more information contact