Working-level environmental officials from South Korea, Japan and China will hold talks this week to discuss ways to control air pollution, Seoul’s environment ministry said Wednesday.
Some 40 government officials and experts each from the three countries will participate in the talks slated for Thursday and Friday in Seoul, the ministry said.
It marks the second edition of the meeting that was created at the proposal of South Korean Environment Minister Yoon Seong-kyu during talks with his counterparts from the two countries in May 2013. The first meeting was held in China in March 2014.
During the upcoming talks, participants will introduce and share their country’s policies to control emissions of air pollutants from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and non-road mobile sources at the request of the Chinese environment ministry.
VOCs are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature and low water solubility like benzene and formaldehyde. Non-road mobile pollution sources are devices or vehicles used at places such as airports, container terminals and construction sites.
Seoul officials say China is putting a lot of importance on the meeting to share advanced policies and experiences with South Korea and Japan as there currently is no established policy to curb VOCs, a major cause of serious smog in Beijing and other big cities.
South Korea will present its policies and technologies to control emissions from VOCs and non-road mobile pollution sources, the ministry said. (Yonhap)
