NEASPEC 20th Senior Officials Meeting was held in Tokyo in Japan on 1-2 February 2016. In addition to the review of the progress in activity implementation and administration, the SOM adopted the NEASPEC Strategic Plan 2016 - 2020.  The Strategic Plan defines three goals, i.e. (a) enhancing coordinated actions to  subregional  environmental challenges, (b) mutually supporting to tackle domestic challenges and (c) contributing to SDGs, in particular, environment-related goals. The Plan highlights a number of SDGs and targets relevant to the programme areas and recommends NEASPEC to build its vertical linkages with SDGs. The Plan provides the following objectives of five programme areas as well as lists of specific activities for each area.

• Transboundary Air Pollution: By 2020, implement joint projects on transboundary air pollution to facilitate information sharing, joint study and cooperation among Member States and relevant institutions.
• Biodiversity and Nature Conservation: By 2020, implement joint plans or projects for six target species under the NEASPEC Nature Conservation Strategy with enhanced and strengthened transboundary cooperation among all stakeholders.
• Marine Protected Areas: By 2020, fully operationalize NEAMPAN to support partnerships among target MPAs and stakeholders, and enhance capacity to achieve, inter alia, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets related to marine and coastal biodiversity in a holistic manner.
• Low Carbon Cities: By 2020, fully operationalize a subregional platform for low carbon cities to support communications and cooperation among stakeholders, and link cities and major stakeholders both within and beyond the subregion and promote awareness and capacity to promote low carbon and climate resilient development
• Desertification and Land Degradation: By 2020, implement a number of partnership projects recommended by the North-East Asia Multi-stakeholder Plan (NEAMSP) on Combating Desertification and Land Degradation for more coordinated and efficient actions in combating desertification amongst key stakeholders.

Highlights from the 20th Senior Officials Meeting are as follows:

• Transboundary Air Pollution: Following the implementation of the Project “Development of the Technical and Policy Frameworks for Transboundary Air Pollution Assessment and Abatement in North-East Asia”, SOM noted the plan to forumlate the concept for a new subregional framework during the first half of 2016.
• Nature Conservation: SOM was briefed on the progress of the two on-going projects, “Study on Transborder Movement of Amur Tigers and Leopards using Camera Trapping and Molecular Genetic Analysis” and “Conservation and Rehabilitation of Habitats for Key Migratory Birds in North-East Asia”.
• Marine Protected Areas: SOM was presented with the list of target MPAs for NEAMPAN and the plan for a workshop to share experiences in MPA management, to be held in June 2016 in Suncheon, ROK.
• Low Carbon Cities: The Meeting recognized the significant potential of low carbon cities to achieve nationally determined contributions in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  The Meeting recognized the North-East Asia Low Carbon City Platform (NEA-LCCP) as an open platform for organizations working on low carbon cities to jointly mobilize their efforts and adopted the Terms of Reference for the Platform.
• Desertification and Land Degradation: SOM welcomed the change of programme area title into Desertification and Land Degradation.  It was briefed on the development of the North-East Asia Multistakeholder Plan (NEAMSP) and recognized the Plan as an important initiative and supported its implementation. The Meeting recommended NEASPEC to collaborate with multilateral mechanisms, such as through establishing communication with regional and global mechanisms, exploring approaches to obtain and utilize information, and integrating access to resources.
• NEASPEC Strategic Plan 2016-2020: The Meeting adopted the draft Strategic Plan and noted that specific projects/ activities under each programme will be developed in due course.