The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport held "The Seminar of a Study to Promote a CDM in the Transport Sector to Resolve the Global Warming Problem " that was co-hosted by the Japan Transport Cooperation Association (JTCA) and the Thailand Ministry of Transport (MOT) and the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP) which is a lower organization of the MOT.

More than 160 people participated in the Japanese seminar including government representatives from Japan and Thailand, Vice-Minister for Transportation, Mr.Jaruk and Deputy Mayor of Bangkok, Mr.Nathanon, experts who have an academic background in global warming, representatives from private companies such as bus companies and car manufacturers attended the seminar.

At the seminar, Japan and the Thailand delivered lectures about the Advantages and possibility of a CDM in Transport Sector ," "CDM, Bio-diesel policy and possibility in Thailand, " "Development of Emission Factors of In-use Vehicle in Bangkok" and "Proposal of potential CDM pilot project in the transport sector."

After the lecture, many questions and answers were exchanged between spectators and lecturers. In addition, officials from Thailand demanded a specific plan for the CDM project. We were given evidence of the high degree of expectations for the CDM.

Reference

1. What is a CDM?

CDM is an abbreviation of the "Clean Development Mechanism" which is one of mechanisms determined in the Kyoto Protocol.

This is a system that can allot a fixed quantity of reduced greenhouse gas discharge, reduced by a developed country's technology and fund support for a developing country, to a part of the discharge reduction for the developed nation

2. What is the Kyoto Protocol

In recent years, various problems caused by global warming are happening. As a measure, the Kyoto Protocol took effect and determined numerical targets with the legal power for developed nations on February 16, 2005.
The features are as follow:

1. Obligates the reduction of greenhouse gas for developed countries. (Japan has a duty to reduce 6% from the level of 1990, between 2008 and 2012)
2. Has the mechanism that allots the greenhouse gas which is reduced by discharge reduction measures in other countries to the discharge of another country, or buy and sell the eco-right that other countries have (Kyoto Mechanism).

3. Japanese obligation of discharge reduction and application of the CDM

apan has made efforts to reduce greenhouse gas discharge such as making the outline for the development of an anti-global warming measure, but it is still in a difficult position to achieve the numerical targets. Therefore, it is necessary to utilize international frameworks such as the CDM.

The Application of the CDM in the Transport sector is very late when compared with the Energy sector because it has been difficult to grasp greenhouse gas discharge from bused and cars in developed countries and inspection techniques for greenhouse gas discharge reduction has not been established.

4. Joint investigation Summary

In the first Transport policy promotion meeting, held in April, 2002 in Bangkok, Thailand,the "Grasp the current situation of the environmental burden in the trafic sector" was contained in the "Bangkok Initiative: Environmentally Friendly Urban Transport 2002".As a concrete activity, since 2003, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Japan and the Ministry of Transport of Thailand have been doing a "survey for promoting the CDM in the trafic sector" and a "survey of techniques to get emissions reduction and to know the present discharge of greenhouse gases and air pollution from cars."This survey, "Research to promote the CDM project in the transport sector" was held in the ASEAN-Japan Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation meeting in November, 2004, is ranked as the "ASEAN-Japan Greenhouse Gas Reduction Project" in the "ASEAN-Japan Traffic Cooperative Project".

5. Future Effort

In this seminar, it was aimed to report the achievement of an awareness campaign.In the future, we will continue to have necessary joint projects with Thailand and promote CDM projects with bio-diesel which is proposed in the seminar and continue to request the approval before the end of the year 2005.

Lecturers and themes at the seminar

Lecturer	Theme
(College of Science and Technology, Nihon University) Atsushi Fukuda Dr. Eng.	Advantages and possibility of CDM in Transport Sector
(Policy Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) Yukio Yamashita	Importance of alternative fuel study and the CDM under ASEAN-Japan Transport Partnership
(Ministry of Energy, Thailand) 　　Mr. Rangsun Sarochawitkasit	CDM, Bio-diesel policy and possibility in Thailand
(Royal Thai Navy, Thailand) 　　Captain Dr. Samai Jai-In, RTN	Pilot project on bio-diesel using palm oil in Thailand
(Japan Transport cooperation association) Ryo Masutomo	Concept of CDM promotion study in Transport sector
(Japan Weather Association) Yasuki Shirakawa	Development of Emission Factors of In-use Vehicle in Bangkok
(Suncarefuels Co.,Ltd) Kouhei Wakabayashi	Experimental project on bio-diesel using sunflower oil in Northeast, Thailand
(Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Thailand) 　　Ms. Prasertsuk Chamornmarn	Policy and measurement towards climate change and the possibility to promote CDM in Thailand
(ALMEC Co.,Ltd.) Isamu Koike	Proposal of potential CDM pilot project in transport sector(bio-diesel project and bus rapid transit)
(Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Plannning, Thailand) 　　Mr. Chamroon Tangpaisalkit	Anticipation of CDM project in Transport sector in Thailand