The Ministry of Environment staged the 2024 7-SEAS and KPEx Workshop Nov. 12-13 in Taipei City, underscoring the government’s commitment to jointly address air pollution with like-minded partners.

Representatives from U.S.’ NASA joined the seminar, in addition to participants from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

During the meeting, officials shared results of the collaborative air quality project between Taiwan and NASA. Discussion also focused on the 7 South East Asian Studies set to be held in 2025 and 2026, an international simultaneous experiment which will delve deeply into the issue of cross-border air pollution in Asia’s major cities to gain insight into the factors resulting in regional contamination.

According to the MOENV, 7-SEAS is an atmospheric monitoring project run in cooperation between Taiwan and nearby Southeast Asian countries. Its goal is to investigate the long-distance impact of contaminants produced through the burning of agricultural waste as well as these pollutants’ interactions with various factors in the atmospheric environment.

Dr. Hal Maring, program manager for NASA’s Radiation Sciences Program, spoke at the forum, lauding Taiwan’s research capacity as displayed in last spring’s experiment while recognizing its monitoring technologies and contributions to environmental research.

The forum also included talks on atmospheric chemistry and meteorological observations. The ministry said it hopes that through multinational cooperation, air quality in the region will be improved. 


Source:  Taiwan Today (https://taiwantoday.tw/index.php)