14 November 2008: The Better Air Quality 2008 workshop,
which took place from 12-14 November 2008, in Bangkok, Thailand, brought
together about 1,000 participants from over 35 countries and was organized
around the theme: “Air quality and climate change: scaling up win-win solutions
in Asia.”

The workshop was organized by the Clean Air Initiative Asia Center,
the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the Pollution Control Department of
Thailand, in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank, the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific (ESCAP). Noting that crucial issues ranging from climate change to
health or traffic congestion are often not taken into consideration in policy
development, Shaoyi Li, a senior environment official from ESCAP, spoke of the
need to encourage decision makers in Asian cities to adopt an integrated
approach in managing urban growth. He pointed to the unprecedented growth in
Asian cities and warned against the potential damage to urban air quality due
to increased motorization and energy use.
The event is one of a series of
consultations between ESCAP and the Asian-Pacific developing countries on a
post-2012 climate regime with the objectives of sharing views and ideas on
follow-up to the Bali Climate Change Conference in December 2007, discussing
innovative options for climate actions, and identifying effective approaches on
the promotion of national mitigation and adaptation actions. [IISD RS Coverage] [Workshop Website] [ESCAP Press Release]