The Japanese Ministry of the Environment hosted the Asian Mayors' Policy Dialogue for the Promotion of Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) in Cities on April 23 and 24, 2007, in Kyoto, in collaboration with the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD), the ASEAN Working Group on Environmentally Sustainable Cities (AWGESC) and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).

The ministry, together with the UNCRD, has been working on national level initiatives to promote environmentally sustainable transport in Asia. For example, they jointly established in 2005 the Regional EST Forum in Asia, for policy dialogue among senior officials from Asian countries.

EST initiatives are expected to be enhanced by mutual reinforcement of national and city-level efforts. In the hope of promoting such synergy, the Asian Mayors' Policy Dialogue for the Promotion of EST in Cities was held as a preliminary event to the 40th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (scheduled for May 2007 in Kyoto). Mayors from Asian countries will share successful examples of EST in their cities, and discuss policies for promoting EST in Asian cities.

Meanwhile, the Regional EST Forum in Asia, established by the UNCRD and Japan, aims to realize EST in Asia through dialogue among senior officials from 14 Asian nations, namely ASEAN countries, China, South Korea, Mongolia and Japan, as well as representatives from international organizations and specialists in the fields of environmental issues and transportation.

http://www.iges.or.jp/en/est2007/

Posted: 2007/04/30 12:11:23 PM
Japanese version

TAG Government , Local government , Transportation , University/Research institute