August 8, 2005
Ministry of the Environment (MoE), Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD), Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan, and Aichi Prefectural Government jointly hosted "The International Conference on Environment and Transport in AICHI" in conjunction with the EXPO 2005 in Nagoya from August 1 to 5, 2005.
Minister of the Environment Yuriko Koike attended the opening ceremony on August 1 and emphasized the importance of the efforts on the integration of the environment and transport in the talks with Mr. Ken Noguchi, a professional mountaineer. The five-day event was attended by more than 3,000 participants from industries, governments and academia to hold active discussion on the environment and transport with wide range of viewpoints.
In the first meeting of the Regional Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) Forum aiming at integration of the environment and transport held on August 1 and 2, proactive discussion was held by policy makers from Asian region to adopt the Aichi Statement. In the Symposium on Environment and Transport, domestic and international participants from academia, industries, general public and administration had roundtable discussion on seven themes including development and dissemination of environmentally friendly vehicles, change to less environmental load road transport, sustainable urban transport. In the workshop of "Automobile, Environment, Technology 2005" held on August 2 and 3, children who will be the major player in the next generation learned the state of the art technology and need for harmonization between environmental conservation and transport through experiments of fuel cells technology.
In line with the outcome of the conference, the MoE is committed to further promote efforts to attain the environmentally sustainable transport in Asian region.
[LINK]
| * | Aichi Statement |