The mission of the Adaptation Knowledge Platform is to mainstream climate adaptation into development planning in the region as well as to ensure an effective two-way flow of information from researchers on ways to cope with changing climate to policy makers, and to communities who are battling the changes on the ground. The Adaptation Knowledge Platform is entering its third year since inception. The pinnacle of the year was the 2-day Asia Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum, held in October. It witnessed one of the largest gatherings of adaptation experts coming together to prioritize on integrating adaptation into planning in the region. The event saw the launch of the Adaptation Knowledge Platform web portal, which is knowledge based, launched to address the challenges facing the adaptation community. The Adaptation Knowledge Platform also launched e-communiqué, an electronic newsletter that updates the reader on the latest news on adaptation in the region.

The Inception report was written during the Inception Phase of the Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform for Asia, between January and December 2009.The following organizations and individuals collaborated on this report: • Asian Institute of Technology-United Nations Environment Programme Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific (AIT-UNEP RRC.AP): Mahesh Pradhan, Satya Priya, Roopa Rakshit, Lekha Ratnayake, Hiromi Inagaki, • Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI): John Soussan, Lisa Schipper, Kai Kim Chiang, Delia Paul, Muanpong Jontupas, Chayanis Krittasudthacheewa, Sabita Thapa, • UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (UNEP): Mozaharul Alam, Serena Fortuna, Shirley Kai. The Inception Report is submitted to the Swedish Environment Secretariat for Asia (SENSA), Bangkok, Thailand.

The book provides insight into the scientific and technical aspects of multilateral cooperation and negotiations as well as guidance on practical science-based development of regional environmental law with the aim of assisting negotiations. It also highlights the achievements of existing conventions, protocols and agreements and offers guidance on how to adapt this experience and tailor it to specific regional circumstances and underlines the links between air pollution and climate change, economic development and poverty outlining the multiple, Green Economy benefits of integrating air pollution programmes with those of greenhouse gases.

The year 2011 saw Regional Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform for Asia (AKP) come into its own in the region and beyond. In the first year of its existence, it established a firm foundation from which to propel its work. By the end of the year, it had moved closer toward its goal by getting the focal countries to take cognizance of the need to mainstream adaptation into development planning in the Asia-Pacific region. For instance, several of the most significant change stories in this progress report, capture different perspectives of ‘change’ from partners, media users and learning event participants. The qualitative data explains how adaptation-related knowledge has influenced new mitigation programming and research in the region.

Countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia are experiencing severe air pollution problems. Most countries lack technical capabilities and adequate air quality management (AQM) infrastructure. A capacity building workshop on AQM was organised from 19–23 September 2022 for countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia. A total of 17 countries (eight in South Asia and nine in Southeast Asia) participated in the workshop. Each country was invited to present on available AQM infrastructure, including challenges and needs. This article synthesises information on available AQM facilities, challenges and needs of the countries.

The Asia Waste Management Outlook (AWMO) provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities in waste management in the context of Asia. The AWMO is not intended to be a directory of wasterelated data or statistics; rather, it is intended to provide a perspective with prescriptions for a variety of stakeholders to encourage early action. It is also intended to provide an overview of the current status, current cutting-edge thinking, and the future of solid waste management in Asia over the medium term.

ABC Emission Inventory Manual (ABC-EIM) discussed the methodology for compilation of emissions of major pollutants from various sectors. ABC-EIM is accompanied with an Excel-based workbook, which can be used for compilation and estimation of emissions of the ABCs precursors. ABC EIM has been developed after reviewing the structure and content of other major emission inventories.The ABC-EIM has added emphasis on open biomass burning emissions. This manual presents methods for temporal and spatial distribution of emissions. It includes emission estimations of black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC), which are not addressed in detail by existing manuals. The manual has also been tested in two case studies of emission inventories developed for Indonesia and Thailand, using the Excel-based tool which can also be applied in emission inventories in other Asian countries. The ABC-EIM allows use of best available emission factors relevant to the region.

Atmospheric Brown Clouds: Regional Assessment Report with Focus on Asia (summary) was the first integrated assessment report on ABCs with focus on Asia. It disussed the impacts of ABCs on regional climate, water resources, precipitation, agriculture production, glacier melting, and health. It reveals that the ABCs is a global phenomenon, spread heterogeneously over several parts of the world. The ABCs with build-up of greenhouse gases (GHGs) resulting a global warming and possessing major environmental threats to Asia’s water and food security. ABCs have resulted surface dimming, atmospheric solar heating and melting of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan-Tibetan (HKHT) glaciers and snow packs due to deposition of soot.

The writing of “Building Climate Resilience: A Training Manual for Community Based Climate Change Adaptation” was inspired a few years ago during a climate change adaptation symposium in Thailand, where much of the discussion behind the stage was over a lack of a clear adaptation mindset in rural development initiatives. Many institutions were posing actions that, seemingly, only held the tag climate change adaptation, and lack a clear focus on adapting to climate related hazards. Rather, actions were addressing poor development, governance, and land use management practices. Understanding the urgency and need to address the aforementioned, and a need to bring a more integrated development approach to climate change adaption, in 2009, SOFEDev was approach by the Adaptation Knowledge Platform to develop a focus approach to assessing climate change impacts, adaptive capacities, and enabling environments for adaptation within rural poor communities, and amongst their development services providers.

The programme mainly aimed to build the capacities of the ASEAN member countries on air quality management and emission reduction of PM2.5. The 17 prominent experts of the region were invited as lecturers who covered a range of important topics, including air quality monitoring, emission inventory development, air quality modeling, human health and environment impact assessment, and planning skills for emission reduction policies and action plans. The valuable information introduced in the respective lectures has been compiled in this workshop report.

This subregional environmental performance assessment (EPA), a collaborative effort between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), examines methodologies used to create environmental performance assessment (EPAs) for member countries in the GMS to develop national and subnational capacities for implementing EPA.

This Beginner’s Guide to the Climate Change Mitigation Funding has been designed for a multitude of stakeholders wishing to contribute to combatting climate change, while taking advantage of the emerging technologies; profiting from energy and resource-efficient approaches, and testing ingenuous ideas. Securing adequate funding is often a first and crucial step on this path.

The monitoring results of 2009-11 have been discussed in the Data Analysis Report 2012. The eight countries participating in the Malé Declaration programme were required to carry out both wet and dry deposition monitoring. Dry deposition was monitored using two methods, viz. by using PM10 samplers (for PM10, SO2 and NO2) and using Diffusive samplers (for SO2, NO2 and O3). Wet deposition was monitored using Wet (Wet) and Wet (Bulk) samplers for pH, Ec, NH4+, Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, SO42-, Cl- and NO3-. The monitoring parameters and methodologies were identified under the measurement protocol developed for each of the monitoring locations. The entire analytical data were submitted by the participating laboratories to NIAs which in turn forwarded the same to the Secretariat. Subsequently, the Monitoring Committee members held a discussion with each of the NIAs at the Refresher Training Course which is held regularly every year. After discussion, the Secretariat compiled and stored the monitoring data on the website of the network.

The building and construction sector is a major source of environmental degradation. Its geographical spread, rapid growth rate and the long lives of the structures being built, leads to widespread impacts affecting several generations. This makes this sector a hot spot requiring careful analysis and benign intervention. The dynamics of current socio-economic systems ensure that the sector will continue to grow at a rapid rate. The development pathways of most Asian countries are symptomatic of these trends. The application of eco-housing has the potential to reverse these trends. A central goal of this evolving concept is to achieve comfortable and healthy habitats at affordable costs, through low impact methods, consuming less resource than a standard habitat and using environmental friendly materials and products. It also sets out to be a net producer of environmental and social goods by imitating the self sustaining, cyclic processes of nature. In practice, this will involve minimising resource intensity leading to “dematerialisation” and to “rematerialise” by using the bio-climatic features of the site to create environmental and social goods. Bioclimatic design principles and life cycle approaches aids in this process. Ecohousing re-visits sustainable traditional architectural practices, explores the possibilities of modern technology and advocates the use of renewable resources. This wide spectrum of objectives needs to be integrated across several mature

Indicators can be defined as statistics, measures or parameters that can be used to track changes of the environmental and socio-economic conditions. Indicators are developed in synthesizing and transforming scientific and technical data into fruitful information. It can provide a sound base for decision-makers to take a policy decision on present as well as potential future issues of local, national, regional and global concerns. It can be used to assess, monitor and forecast parameters of concerns towards achieving environmentally sound development. Environment is constituted of air, water, land and biodiversity, which are life support systems for human beings. Human activities in the pursuit of economic development have caused immense pressure on environment. Reversal of environmental degradation is the paramount essential to safeguard the well being of present as well as future generations. Indicators are means of measuring progress of desired actions. In order to track the progress on implementation of the Agenda 21 and Millennium Goals, there is an expressed need to develop framework for simple indicators on environmental resources, i.e. air, water, land and biodiversity.