Dialogues on air pollution: an Asian example

The efficient reduction of transboundary air pollution requires dialogue on emission reduction at an international level. A model is under construction to facilitate such dialogues for Asia. This is the Regional Air pollution Information System (RAINS-Asia), developed at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) (Cofala et al., 2004; Foell et al., 1995; Shah et al., 2000). RAINS-Asia is an integrated assessment model, simulating the causes and impacts of acidification in Asia for the present day and for the future (up to the year 2020). It may be used to identify cost effective strategies to reduce emissions of sulphur in Asian countries (Cofala et al., 2004). The model is being developed, taking the European RAINS model as an example (Alcamo et al., 1990). RAINS-Europe has been widely used as a basis for international policies on long-range transboundary air pollution (e.g., Tuinstra et al., 1999). RAINS-Asia has largely the same model structure as RAINS-Europe. The most important difference is that the RAINS-Europe development started more than 25 years ago, while RAINS-Asia is relatively more recent (first released around 2000). Both RAINS models are being developed with large inputs from stakeholders, in order to increase the acceptance of the model results by the stakeholders