USAID RDM/A Regional Environment Office Weekly Report Week Ending March 14, 2008

USAID Establishes Partnership to Improve Efficiency of Coal Power Plants in Vietnam
In meetings in Hanoi during early March, Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and USAID's ECO-Asia Clean Development and Climate program joined together in a partnership to improve coal plant efficiency.  The partnership will help integrate cleaner coal technologies and practices into the ongoing plans for coal sector development and investment in Vietnam.  The next step is for USAID technical experts to perform a detailed technical audit of the selected plant, and this will pave the way for ADB to develop a loan package with EVN to rehabilitate the plant.  The upgraded plants will be able to produce more energy using less coal and thus will have significantly reduced CO2 emissions.  The Swiss-Vietnam Clean Air Program also agreed to support a technical expert to make recommendations for reducing particulate emissions from the plants.

Philippine Initiates New Environmental Compliance Assistance Center
The Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) and Philippines’s National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) organized an orientation for regulators at the Compliance Assistance Center (CAC) for Slaughterhouses in the Laguna de Bay Region in Calauan, Philippines on March 7, 2008.  As one of the CAC’s first activities, the workshop involved briefing regulators on the CAC’s services and the relationship between the CAC and the implementation of environmental laws.  Over 90 participants from local government agencies engaged CAC representatives in a discussion to learn how the center can improve compliance among the regulated community.  The workshop also provided participants an opportunity to discuss improving coordination and ensuring consistent information exchange to strengthen enforcement at different levels and to promote compliance in the slaughterhouse industry.  USAIDa supports the CAC initiative through the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (AECEN). As part of an overarching compliance assistance program, AECEN supports members in the Philippines and Thailand strengthen compliance promotion in the slaughterhouse and hog-farm sectors. A formal launch of the Philippines’s slaughterhouse and hog-farm assistance centers is planned for April 29, 2008.