Title: Development of science and policy related to acid deposition in East Asia over 30 years

Abstract

Scientific and public interest in acid deposition and its ecological impacts have increased throughout 1990s in East Asia (Northeast and Southeast Asia). After being established in 2001, the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET) celebrates the 20th anniversary in 2021, and is now being expanded in scope reflecting the shifting social concern from acid deposition to broader air quality and climate change in recent years. This paper reviews the past 30 years of development of scientific research and policy activities related to acid deposition in East Asia. Since the onset of the 21st century, East Asia has had the highest SO2 and NOx emissions in the world by continents, with substantial economic developmental inequality among countries. An overview of studies on sulfur and nitrogen deposition, the acidification of inland water and forest soil, and forest decline reveal that although limited acidification of inland water and forest soils have been documented, no decline in the populations of fish and other aquatic biota has been reported in East Asia. After a review of policy-oriented modeling studies on source receptor relationships and the critical loads of sulfur and nitrogen in East Asia, the history of EANET and its success and challenges are discussed. Finally, the importance of epistemic communities as the interface between science and policy in the region is discussed. Regional governance and cooperation are essential for reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, especially short-lived climate pollutants and atmospheric pollutants to realize the co-benefits of global climate change mitigation and improved air quality.

Biography

H. Akimoto received his PhD in 1967 in physical chemistry from Tokyo Institute of Technology. After spending three years at University of California, Riverside as a postdoctoral fellow studying atmospheric reactions of photochemical air pollution, he returned to Japan, and worked at National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), University of Tokyo as a professor, Frontier Research Center for Global Change at JAMSTEC, and then served as DG of Asia Center for Air pollution Research (ACAP). After he retired from ACAP in 2016, he has been a guest scientist at NIES until the end of March 2022. His expertise is atmospheric chemistry, and he has studied formation mechanisms of ozone and secondary aerosols by combining laboratory experiments, field observation and modeling activities. Recently, he is more interested in the science and policy interface on SLCP co-control for air pollution and climate change mitigation.