The 17th Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting between China, South Korea and Japan has been held in Shanghai.

Ministers signed the Tripartite Joint Action Plan on Environmental Cooperation on Thursday, agreeing on lists of specific joint activities in nine priority areas.

The nine priority areas include air quality improvement; biodiversity; chemical management and environmental emergency response.

Chinese environment minister Chen Jining says China has made progress in combating air pollution, as the average density¹ of fine particle matter or PM 2.5 in 74 cities adopting a new air quality index has dropped.

"In the first quarter of this year, the decreasing trend sped up. The average PM 2.5 density in 74 cities decreased by 16 percent. PM 2.5 density in cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region was reduced by more than 27 percent. "

Japanese environment minister Mochizuki Yoshio proposed that the three countries will step up their cooperation in the fields of monitoring technologies and emission² reduction measures.

"China, Japan and South Korea will continue their discussion about policies combating air pollutions. Such discussions have been successfully held twice before. We will share information and jointly³ carry out research in terms of monitoring technologies, survey methods and emission reductions measures… At this meeting, we have agreed to build two working groups in charge of air pollution."

South Korean environment minister Yoon Seongkyu added that dust and sand storm forecasting will be another priority for the trilateral cooperation initiative.

"The three countries will build a research group composed of 30 experts. Each country will dispatch 10 people for studies related to dust and sand storms. Actually, the trilateral cooperation regarding monitoring and forecasting of sand storms started in 2002. "

According to Yoon Seongkyu, the meeting agreed a research plan on dust and sand storms over the next five years, aimed at improve forecasting accuracy. The Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting was first held in 1999. The three countries rotate the hosting of the meeting annually⁴.