Continuous collaboration is required to combat air pollution and natural disasters in Asia-Pacific region. The UN General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/74/212 on “International Day of Clean Air for blue skies” in 2019 to strengthen international cooperation at the global, regional, and subregional levels in various areas related to improving air quality, including the collection and utilization of data, joint research and development, and sharing of best practices. In accordance with the UN resolution, the Pan-Asia partnership for Geospatial Air Pollution information (PAPGAPi) project was launched in 2020.
Pandora Asian Network (PAN) will serve as a regional roundtable for scientific information and cooperative dialogue for air pollution monitoring and management. It will be part of the Pandonia Global Network (PGN)[1] and its organizational structure will be divided into three groups: Executive, Operator, and Scientific Advisory groups. The Executive and Operator groups are composed of representatives from the participating member countries. The Scientific Advisory group is composed of prominent experts in the field of atmospheric chemistry and physics from the Asia-Pacific region.
In preparation of the roundtable, the ESCAP secretariat, in collaboration with the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), is co-hosting a preparatory training for the Principal Investigators (PIs) and/or Technical Operators (TOs) of Pandora instruments as well as senior officials from each participating countries. This meeting will serve as a training on the operational aspects of deploying Pandora instruments and GEMS data applications.