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World traveler, sustainable cities advocate and sometimes contributor Gordon Feller, chief executive officer of the Urban Age Institute, was in Thailand recently to attend  the Better Air Quality 2008 conference in Bangkok and offered to fill Green Car Advisor in on the goings-on.



As Feller put it in his preamble, "air pollution levels generated by private vehicles have, in some cases, become a matter of national crisis" yet fewer than 20 percent of the world's larger cities bother to monitor air quality and fewer still are taking action aimed at cutting pollution levels.


At the Bangkok gathering, held Nov 12-14, the idea was to examine "the need to integrate air quality management and climate change mitigation, as well as to scale up solutions to tackle the immense air pollution challenges of Asia," Fellers wrote.


Here's his report:



Bangkok 2008


By Gordon Feller, Contributor


Car makers are anxious about the initiatives national governments and cities will be taking in many of Asia's 2,500-plus cities with populations of more than 100,000.

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A typical Bangkok traffic scene.
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The anxiety is spawned by the enormous global attention on climate change, intensified by air quality concerns during the recent Beijing Olympic Games. It is increasing pressure on the big air polluters - energy, transport and industrial sources - to curb emissions of smog-causing pollutants and greenhouse gases.


A host of government policy makers and other stakeholders were among the more than 900 participants at the workshop, organized by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the Pollution Control Department of Thailand and the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia).


They were assisted by the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Environment Program and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.


The theme is timely: most of Asia's cities are expected to make policy and investment decisions on their transport and energy supply structures that will lock them into specific greenhouse gas and air pollution scenarios for next 20 to 30 years.


"The overwhelming attention to climate change offers great potential for the air quality community in Asia to embrace a 'co-benefits approach' that integrates air quality management with climate change mitigation," said Cornie Huizenga, executive director of the CAI-Asia Center.


"It is important now to identify, through research and discussion, measures that can reap such win-win benefits and those that will bring about trade-offs for air quality and climate change."


One clear signal coming out of the Bangkok sessions: Asia's rapidly growing cities need to follow the model of Singapore, as well as some European cities, in developing integrated and sustainable public transport systems. They also need to include land use planning so that people can travel more easily and affordably to offices, schools or entertainment areas.
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Tags: Emissions, Mass Transit, Air Pollution, Bangkok Air Quality Conference, Better Air Quality 2008 Conference

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Monday Read: Bangkok Air Quality Conference Focus Is On Traffic and Pollution was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.