May 4-6, 2001, US-AEP participated in the second Mayors Asia-Pacific Environmental Summit, which brought together more than 200 participants ranging from government officials to business representatives and non-governmental organizations to share information, best practices, and strategies for improving urban environmental management. The underlying theme of the conference was poverty alleviation. Sponsors and coordinators of the event were the City of Honolulu, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), the International City and County Managers Association (ICMA), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

US-AEP's participation in the summit included an active role on the Conference Planning Committee, coordination of the Urban Air Quality and Sustainable Energy sessions, and sponsorship of 24 participants from eight countries. Peter Kimm, Executive Director of US-AEP, served as an opening plenary speaker and moderated two sessions.

The conference focused on three important themes. "Snap Shot Cities" sessions, led by the ADB, took an in-depth look at environment, poverty, and public health measures taken to address challenges in six cities of varying size and average incomes in the region. "Strategies and Tools" workshops, led by the ADB, US-AEP, the City of Honolulu, and the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), presented best practices for addressing environmental concerns in several sectors. "Rio+10" sessions, led by ICLEI, involved country-level discussions and the collaborative preparation of Rio +10 local government leaders' reports. These reports assess environmental progress since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. The conference culminated in a well-organized series of commitments made by mayors and city officials to implement changes in their cities that improve the environment and reduce poverty.

For US-AEP, the results of the conference will lead to active participation in Rio+10 in 2002, including preparatory work in Asia and the Rio+10 conference scheduled for June 2002 in Johannesburg. In addition, US-AEP and CityNet will explore areas of cooperation, and US-AEP and the City of San Diego opened the door to several possibilities for a future project, possibly a resource city program with ICMA.

The ADB annual meeting immediately followed MAPES. Many mayors, as well as several US-AEP representatives, stayed on for the Global Pavilion and one-on-one meetings with private sector companies. Highlighting the importance of the Global Pavilion was the fact that U.S. companies win the majority of ADB technical assistance contracts. US-AEP representatives counseled many private companies interested in doing business in Asia. The MAPES principal steering committee, including US-AEP, will meet June 26 and 27 in Seattle, Washington.

Recognizing the crucial role environmental justice plays in various aspects of environmental management, US-AEP/Chennai is involved in a project to introduce "Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR)" techniques in India. The effort is a partnership between US-AEP, the Council of State Governments/State Environmental Initiative (CSG/SEI) and the University of Kentucky.

The "Green Bench" in Chennai, India serves the local High Court by focusing solely on trials related to environmental offences. Early work done by US-AEP Technology Representative Sundaresan Subramanian and the Kentucky team, comprised of John Stempel and Bert Harberson, resulted in the constitution of an official five-member advisory board to the local Green Bench to explore alternative dispute resolution techniques. This is the first time in India that the Chief Justice of a High Court has constituted such an advisory board.

On May 14, Tech Rep Subramanian organized the first meeting of the Green Bench advisory board members in Chennai. Mr. Bert Harberson, Director, Council of State Governments National Institute of Conflict Management, addressed the board to explain ADR concepts, and set the direction for its functioning. Mr. Harberson spent the week in Chennai to study the present systems, procedures, and sample cases pending before the Green Bench.

There are currently more than 217 environmental cases pending with the Chennai Green Bench. The hope is that the ADR project will build a system that provides the Green Bench with the capacity to accelerate resolutions to some of the long-pending environmental cases in India.

US-AEP, together with the U.S. Department of Energy-National Renewable Energy Laboratory (DOE-ENREL) and the American Wind Energy Association, recently co-sponsored a wind power trade delegation to Mongolia. ReTech International, Ltd. of Alaska and Southwest Windpower, Inc. of Arizona received Overseas Program Fund grant assistance to develop wind power market opportunities within the country. This includes large wind farm project development for utility applications and small turbine exports to serve off-grid needs such as rural power for nomadic people, tele-communications, and water pumping.

The trade delegation was organized in connection with the presentation of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and DOE-NREL interagency funded wind energy atlas to the country. The Atlas provides detailed maps of the wind energy potential within Mongolia based on a three-year study, and was officially presented to the Mongolia Parliament by Mr. John Dinger, U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia,.

One of Bangkok's most contentious advocacy battles was finally resolved this spring, allowing Crawford Engineering and Equipment of Orlando, Florida, the right to sign a contract with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). The contract provides that Crawford supply 14 human crematorium units for installation in Buddhist Temples under a special BMA program to promote pollution prevention through "pollution free crematoria." This $600,000 contract will also help Crawford, a small company, to preserve several jobs in Asia and may lead to further similar procurement in the future. Both the Tech Rep and the Commercial Service Office in Bangkok were actively involved in assisting this transaction.

June 20: Dr. Susan Ariel Aaronson, Senior Fellow for International Programs, National Policy Association, will discuss the government's role in promoting government codes of conduct.

June 27: Mr. Duncan Austin , Senior Associate of World Resources International, will demonstrate the WRI's new methodology that allows investors to translate environmental issues into financial terms to encourage sound investment decisions.

June 24-28: The 94th Annual Conference and Exhibition of the Air and Waste Management Association will take place in Orlando, Florida. (Info at www.awma.org/ace2001)

News to share?