Technology is the key to environmental excellence and partnership is the best way to take advantage of each other's strength. Setting up of the PEACE follows one of the major recommendations of the Second Round Table on Cleaner Environment held in New Delhi in June 1999. This Round Table established the need for a forum to encourage regular dialogue between European and Asian stakeholders to disseminate information and benefits of environment friendly products, processes, practices, equipment and technology. Under the proposed project PEACE Clubs will be set-up in Europe and Asian Countries to share the experience on environment friendly technologies. PEACE clubs will work as bridges between Europe and Asia for easy and swift flow of information and technology. The focus will be on SMEs, who do not have capability to invest the amount of capital required to access information to improve their environmental management. PEACE will benefit European companies seeking to market their environmental technologies. Asians will benefit by having a demand-driven channel for information and technology on environmentally responsible action and take concrete action in improving the quality of environ.

PEACE has the following objectives :

Encourage environment friendly trade and investment flow between Asia and Europe. Institutionalise dialogue between European and Asian stakeholders on environment friendly action and socially sustainable issues between the two regions. Creation of selfsustainable environmental clubs called PEACE clubs across Asia that could act as focal points on exchange of information on environment best practices. Inform public, private sector and civil society in Asia about the benefits of environmentally friendly trade, investment, action and behaviour. Involve European organisations to help increase environment management capacity in Asia. Develop, promote and support Asia-Europe Environmental R & D network. Offer expertise on formalisation policies, regulatory frameworks, management instruments, financing mechanism with a view to bring down environmental degradation in Asia. Facilitate market based approaches to environmental protection. Help and advice in integration of environmental accounting with economic accounting. Development of an environmental portal to provide gateway to all environment related information. First meeting of PEACE Club has taken place in January 20, 2001 in New Delhi, INDIA. Invitees for the first meeting include all experts who attended the 2nd Round Table in New Delhi. The agenda will include formation of PEACE Clubs in the country off each representative. PEACE Clubs will provide all the information related to environment technologies and also undertake matchmaking between Asian and European stakeholders. All these services shall be free of cost in the first year. The only income will be from enrolment of members. After a year of the set-up of the club, it will charge a nominal fee for the services and also for the membership.

PEACE CLUB MEETING

The second foundation meeting of the Partnership between Europe and Asia for Cleaner Environment, PEACE was organized by involving a large number of participants from Europe and Asia. The meeting coincided with the international conference on Corporate Governance and the 11th World Congress of Total Quality. Dr.Madhav Mehra, President, World Environment Foundation in his opening remarks gave a genesis in terms of the Asia eco-best programme set up by European Union in 1996 with a mandate to promote environment friendly economic growth in Asia by establishing partnership with European institutions and industries. To promote such a cooperation the European Union organized the first Round Table in Brussels on December 1998. Subsequently the World Environment Foundation took the initiative and organized the Round Table in India during June 4-6, 1999. Regional Institute of Environmental Technology, Singapore, sponsored the Round Table. Following this initiative, the WEF organized a foundation meeting of the network title, Partnership between Europe and Asia for Cleaner Environment, PEACE . The PEACE Clubs will focus on networking arrangements to provide latest information on environmental technologies for mutual transfer between Europe and Asia. The focus will be on smaller and medium enterprises.

Mr.Claude Fussler, who was the first President of the European Partners for the Environment also addressed the participants of the conference. He supported Dr.Madhav Mehra's presentation on the need for closer coordination between Europe and Asia to promote mutual technology transfer. He identified that the important elements in such transfer will be the overseas aid of the developed countries which unfortunately has been reducing and no country is fulfilling its promise to providing 0.7 percent of its GNP towards overseas aid.. Mr.Fussler also emphasized that there are lots of technologies in India that are more affordable and suitable for use in the Asian countries. Horizontal transfer amongst the Asian partners can also be useful. He showed his disagreement on general impression that the European Companies preferred to transfer outdated technologies. He suggested that good business enterprise will always try to transfer best technologies and the latest technologies to make maximum profit. He assured to take back the observations of the meeting and encouraged members of the European Partners for Environment for similar coordination. The following points were emerged during the discussion: