We are pleased to announce that the Better Air Quality 2008 (BAQ 2008) workshop will be held in Bangkok, Thailand on 12 – 14 November 2008, hosted by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). BAQ 2008 will be organized by BMA, the Pollution Control Department (PCD) of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) of Thailand, and the CAI-Asia Center, in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
BAQ 2008 is expected to be the largest international workshop on air quality management (AQM) in Asia with an expected participation from 1,000 decision makers and stakeholders from more than 35 countries worldwide. BAQ 2008 will be preceded by a range of pre-events on 10-11 November. The venue of BAQ 2008 will be announced on this website.
>> Download BAQ 2008 Factsheet
The BAQ 2008 theme is "Air Quality and Climate Change: Scaling up win-win solutions in Asia." This theme is directly related to the recommendation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to integrate air quality management (AQM) and climate change mitigation strategies.
BAQ 2008 aims to contribute to discussions on the future international climate change governance. Following the 13th Meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 13) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bali (December 2007), it is expected that COP 14 in Poland (December 2008) will be crucial in reaching a global consensus on the future of the Kyoto Protocol. BAQ 2008 aims to contribute to reaching such a global consensus by highlighting the possible role of Asian countries in improving urban air quality AND preventing future climate change.
BMA, PCD, and CAI-Asia have agreed to jointly organize BAQ 2008 to help develop a new generation of AQM policies in Asia in which AQM is integrated with climate change mitigation. BMA and the PCD have in the past 15 years set an impressive example for other Asian cities and countries through their efforts to clean up the air in Bangkok and other cities of Thailand. Both organizations have an active interest in the formulation of climate change mitigation activities and consider BAQ 2008 a critical event in their efforts to consolidate and further improve their AQM efforts and to get to terms with the threats posed by climate change.
CAI-Asia has in the last 7 years become the main convener on urban air quality in Asia. It has adopted co-benefits as a leading principle in its activities on knowledge management, capacity building and policy development and it is currently planning new AQM projects in India, China, and other countries that actively integrate the co-benefit approach.
UNEP and ESCAP are both developing activities on climate change mitigation in addition to a broad range of already existing activities on air quality. BAQ 2008 is an ideal opportunity for UNEP and ESCAP to engage with a broad range of stakeholders on their current and future programs.
On behalf of all the BAQ 2008 organizers, we invite you to provide your active support to BAQ 2008.
Contact:
Cornie Huizenga
Executive Director
CAI-Asia Center
www://cleanairnet.org/caiasia
cornie.huizenga (at) cai-asia (dot) org
Links to previous BAQ workshops:
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