On 12 March 2026, at the Better Air Quality Conference (BAQ) 2026, United Nations Conference Centre, the Southeast Asia Climate and Clean Air Initiative (SEACAI) project, implemented by GIZ, and co-funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), hosted a session ‘Mitigation of Super Pollutants: Harnessing Multiple Co-Benefits for Air Quality, Health, Climate, Cryosphere and Economy’ to explore how super pollutant mitigation could contribute to air quality and climate goals whilst remaining economically viable for the value chain’s primary producers.
The session brought together 100 regional representatives in structured dialogue on Short-Lived Climate Pollutants(SLCPs) mitigation. Jane Burston, Chief Executive Officer of the Clean Air Fund (CAF), and Alvaro Zurita, SEACAI Project Director, opened the session by outlining links to CAF and GIZ missions. Ram Lal Verma, Science Manager for Super Pollutants at CAF, gave a presentation on the foundation of cost-effectiveness: black carbon and ozone mitigation deliver simultaneous benefits across health, cryosphere protection and economic resilience.
Dr Patrick Bueker, SEACAI Senior Technical Advisor at GIZ, and Parth Sarathi Mahapatra, Technical Advisor from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) shared regional implementation experience, demonstrating how platforms such as ASEAN and the Malé Declaration translate evidence into coordinated transboundary action.
Sirapong Sooktawee, Director of the Standardisation and Laboratory Group at the Department of Climate Change and Environment (DCCE), demonstrated national policy integration with measurable results. Dr Clyde Hutchinson from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Korea Climate Technology Hub, addressed financing pathways through the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) Finance Hub and multilateral development banks. Together, these speakers illustrated actionable, sector-specific measures and the financing mechanisms that translate regional cooperation and national policy into scaled intervention.
Jane Burston moderated the panel discussion addressing fastest-return mitigation solutions, policy integration frameworks, regional platform coordination, and climate finance mobilisation. The dialogue results underscored that SLCPs mitigation operates as a development priority, protecting health and livelihoods whilst advancing climate goals in cost-effective ways.
Building on these regional insights, the SEACAI project will advance its technical pilot work. The cooperation frameworks and financing integration mechanisms emerging from this session will inform refinement of demonstration approaches, ensuring interventions align with regional platforms to further address super pollutants across the Greater Mekong subregion and ASEAN.
More Information about SEACAI: Southeast Asia Climate & Clean Air Initiative (SEACAI) – Thai-German Cooperation
