China S. Korea & Japan to Establish Network to Share China's Yellow Dust Storm Monitoring Information

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 22, 2002

China S. Korea & Japan to Establish Network to Share China's Yellow Dust Storm Monitoring Information

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South Korea, China, and Japan agreed to establish a yellow dust monitoring network for sharing Chinese yellow dust observation information in order to cope with the yellow dust storms, which have been occurred frequently and intensely.

S. Korean Minister of Environment Kim Myung-Ja, Chinese Minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration Xie Zhenhua, and Japanese Minister of Environment Ohki Hiroshi had the Fourth Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting (TEMM) in Seoul on April 20th and 21st. Recognizing the necessity of monitoring to forecast the yellow dust storms and to minimize damages, they agreed to establish a joint network.

Until now, China has not introduced the yellow dust issue to the TEMM by insisting that it is a natural disaster, and Japan, which has relatively lesser damage than S. Korea, has been passive to this issue. But through this meeting they agreed to make a joint effort in order to solve the yellow dust problem.

They also realized that not only the East Asian environmental authorities` joint effort but also international organizations` cooperative works are necessary to prevent the yellow dust storms. Thus, they will jointly urge the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to receive funds aid for their yellow dust prevention projects. In addition, they decided to have a joint workshop of yellow dust experts to seek yellow dust prevention measures.

According to the agreement, S. Korea will receive Chinese government yellow dust monitoring data, which are collected from 25 ground observation sites, 1 ground radar base, and 3 satellites, on a real time base or little bit later. Using the data, S. Korea can precisely forecast the yellow dust storms and their routes.

S. Korean, Chinese, and Japanese Ministers of Environment will report the activities and results of the TEMM to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), which is scheduled in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August. They also decided to develop the dialogues between all interests-related parties of the three countries, including NGO, local governments, and central governments.

On climate change, the three countries re-confirmed that the Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol are the basic framework of the international cooperation to prevent the global warming in spite of the withdrawal of the U.S. They declared that they expect the effectuation of the Kyoto Protocol within this year.

China and Japan decided to help S. Korea`s hosting of the Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2004. The three countries will strengthen the existing cooperation systems, including the research on the long-distance moving pollutants.

The Fifth TEMM will be held in Beijing, China, next year.

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