that the two countries would cooperate in environmental protection through co-benefit measures. To pave the way for the formulation of specific projects, we would draw up joint programs to transfer environmental technology and knowledge.

In addition, the Ministry of the Environment has started to implement CDM projects as model projects beginning in 2008 to meet the need for anti-pollution measures in developing countries in Asia.

## (3) Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) in Asia

Due to rapid urbanization in recent years, many Asian cities are beset with various problems including air pollution from automobiles, noise, traffic congestion, and an increase in energy consumption in the transport field. At this time, per-capita car ownership in Asian cities is dramatically low compared to the developed countries. However, coupled with a rise in income from economic growth, if motorization advances rapidly, these problems will become more pronounced.

Motorization has progressed in Japan at a rapid speed since the late 1960s, and transport-related pollution problems, such as air pollution, also started to become conspicuous. Thanks to the strengthening of regulations to control exhaust gas, development of technology to reduce exhaust gas, and the popularization of low-emission vehicles, transport-related pollution problems have been ameliorated substantially. Nevertheless, as explained in the previous section, we must scale up efforts to build transportation systems and cities that will exert minimum environmental impacts in order for us to advance to a low carbon society.

Against this backdrop, Japan and the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) established the initiative “Regional EST Forum in Asia” beginning in 2005 with a view to resolving transport-related environmental problems in Asian countries. In the Third Meeting of the Regional EST Forum in Asia held in March 2008 in Singapore, besides the reporting of EST activities by various countries, a discussion was held focusing on using the co-benefit approach to advance global warming mitigation measures and economic development, an approach championed by Japan. The discussion resulted in the recognition that countries should avoid over-dependence on automobiles by improving public transport systems and that it is important to combine economic development with pollution prevention measures to reduce GHG emissions. Japan announced its intention to support collaborative schemes in Asia to promote EST in an integrated manner and co-benefit type measures in Asian countries.

It will become increasingly important for the Asian countries to share their issues and knowledge and work together to realize EST in the future.

## Column Water Problems in the Asia-Pacific Region and the Global Warming

It is estimated that approximately 1.1 billion people worldwide are without continuous access to safe drinking water, and around 600 million people, notably the largest number of them, are in the Asia-Pacific region. It is acknowledged that one of the UN Millennium Development Goals aims at a 50% reduction of the number of people who are without access to safe drinking water by the year 2015. In addition, over 80% of casualties of water disasters such as floods and windstorms worldwide are concentrated in this region, further aggravating the water environment in the region. The global warming has grave impacts on human beings through water problems, and is already affecting water resources and water management, raising concern that this situation will worsen more severely in the future.

In December, 2007, the 1 $ ^{st} $ Asia-Pacific Water Summit, the first international meeting where the heads of state from Asia and Pacific countries discussed the region’s water-related problems, was held, organized by Asia-Pacific Water Forum and the Steering Committee of the 1 $ ^{st} $ Asia-Pacific Water Summit. Participating countries gave presentations on damage and crisis, including glacial lake outbursts and flash floods caused by the large-scale retreat of Himalayan glaciers, and sea-level rise in small island countries and low-lying areas posing a threat to water resources and their management. The importance of cooperation among the Asia-Pacific countries to tackle these water problems was recognized.

Our country has been working on the solution of global water problems. Water Environment Partnership in Asia seeks to promote good water management in Asia monsoon area through maintenance of information infrastructure related to water environment and human resource development.