NEASPEC 22nd Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) was hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China on 25-26 October 2018 in Beijing, China. The Meeting commended the progress in implementing activities in five programme areas while noting the importance of building synergies with relevant national, subregional, regional institutions and organizations, and multilateral programmes. 

With regard to NEASPEC five programmes, the Meeting came to the following decisions:

• Transboundary Air Pollution: The Meeting formally launched the North-East Asia Clean Air Partnership (NEACAP) by endorsing the proposed Terms of Reference. The Meeting also noted the plan of member States for nominating two members of the Science and Policy Committee (SPC) and welcomed the announcement of the Republic of Korea for hosting the first meeting of the SPC.   
• Nature Conservation:  The Meeting commended the concrete outcomes from the three projects on transborder movement of Amur Tigers and Leopards, habitats for key migratory birds and DIPA, and supported the proposed activities on the habitat management of transboundary areas including a workshop in Yanji in March 2019. 
• Marine Protected Areas: The Meeting supported the plan of NEAMPAN activities, notably the plan of holding a Steering Committee meeting in China and an expert meeting in December 2018 in the ROK for the project on the sustainable management of MPAs. The Meeting also noted the request of the Secretariat for the nomination of Steering Committee members and institutions/experts for the project at their earliest convenience. 
• Low Carbon Cities: The Meeting noted the progress in the low carbon pilot cities and provinces of China with the latest third batch as well as programmes of other member States relevant to low carbon cities. The Meeting commended the significant benefits and progress in the peer review of low carbon cities, and, in particular, the outcome and plan of the review for Wuhan and Guangzhou city, respectively. 
• Desertification and Land Degradation: The Meeting noted that DLD remains to be a prominent challenge in the subregion, while recognizing the importance of avoiding duplication with existing mechanisms such as the Northeast Asia Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought Network (DLDD-NEAN). The Meeting highlighted the need to create synergies and enable cooperation with other mechanisms and programmes. Taking into account the views expressed by member States, the Meeting requested the Secretariat to develop a new plan that refocuses the work of NEASPEC on DLD.