The secretariat

The Air Pollution & Climate Secretariat

(formerly the Swedish NGO Secretariat on Acid Rain)

The Secretariat is a joint venture between five Swedish environmental organizations with the chief purpose of promoting awareness of the problems associated with air pollution, and thus, in part as a result of public pressure, to bring about the required reduction in the emissions of air pollutants.

The eventual aim is to have those emissions brought down to levels, the so-called critical loads, that the environment can tolerate without suffering damage.

In furtherance of these aims, the secretariat operates as follows:

• Continuously monitoring political trends and scientific developments.
  
• Acting as an information centre, primarily for European environmentalist organizations, but also for the media, authorities, and researchers.
  
• Publishing a magazine, Acid News, which is issued four times a year and is distributed free of charge to some 4000 selected recipients.
  
• Producing and distributing information material.
  
• Supporting environmentalist bodies in other countries in their work towards common ends.
  
• Participating in the lobbying and campaigning activities of European environmentalist organizations concerning European policy relating to air quality and climate change, as well as in meetings of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The work of the secretariat is largely directed on the one hand towards eastern Europe, and on the other towards the European Union and its member countries.

As regards the eastern European countries, activity mostly takes the form of supporting and cooperating with the local environmentalist movements. Since 1988, for instance, financial support has been given towards maintaining information centres on energy, transport, and air pollution. All are run by local environmentalist organizations.

The secretariat was formed in 1982 with a board now comprising one representative from each of the following organizations:

Friends of the Earth Sweden
http://www.mjv.se/

Nature and Youth Sweden
http://www.faltbiologerna.se/

Swedish Anglers' Association
http://www.sportfiskarna.se/

Swedish Society for Nature Conservation
http://www.naturskyddsforeningen.se/

World Wide Fund for Nature Sweden
http://www.wwf.se/


Last modified: 13 October 2008.