North East Asia: Environmental Reform Needed

The concept of the region of North-East Asia (NEA) is relatively new—politically, economically, and environmentally. This region consists of six countries—the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Japan, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Korea (ROK), the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and Mongolia. Today, serious national and transboundary environmental problems plague NEA with respect to issues such as long-distance transport of air pollutants, water pollution, deforestation, hazardous chemicals, and natural disasters.¹

More than ever before, regional cooperation will be necessary to address these problems. Since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, “there has been a virtual explosion of regional activity for environmental protection of . . . NEA”² Such initiatives include the North-East Asian Subregional Programme of Environmental Cooperation (NEASPEC), the Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting (TEMM), and the Tumen River Area Development Programme (TRADP).

These initiatives were steps in the right direction. Prior to their creation, “environmental issues have largely remained in the diplomatic backwaters in East Asia, and have been of marginal concern compared to other national political and economic interests.”³ Yet despite these efforts, NEA countries continue to be unable to achieve the necessary levels of cooperation that are needed to address these overwhelming problems. This situation is puzzling, given the fact that European regulatory regimes, which bear similar conditions and problems, have been successful.⁴

One reason for NEA’s lack of success, noted in academic literature, has been the non-binding nature of these efforts, which have been “without clauses clearly describing official commitments for compliance and legal restrictions for non-compliance at either bilateral or multilateral cooperation.”⁵ South Korea, for instance, has been reluctant to comply with environmental agreements that would result in high economic costs.⁶

A lack of domestic and regional consensus on certain issues also contributes to the lack of regional cooperation. For example, there is no agreement with respect to transboundary acid deposition and the high economic costs of reducing emissions in NEA. The high economic costs of reducing emissions have also contributed to this problem.⁷ An understanding of and sensitivity to NEA’s cultures and customs will no doubt contribute to increasing this region’s environmental cooperation.⁸ These countries have been taking steps in the right direction for the past two decades, but a lot remains to be done. It is necessary to learn from past examples and make the necessary reforms to increase intergovernmental cooperation in NEA with respect to this region’s environmental problems.