Environmental groups, diplomats and
government officials have urged member-countries of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to come up with a firm stand on pursuing
solutions to climate change to ensure that the region would be able to cope
with what they fear is a looming environmental crisis. They cited the Asean’s
vulnerability to climate change, which is seen to seriously affect most aspects
of livelihood and limit the regional bloc’s future development options.
“Asean countries are highly at
risk but we are less prepared. We have to come up with a strong stand on the
urgency of the issue and develop an action plan to better understand and
respond to climate change,” Orlando Mercado, a former senator and former
Philippine ambassador to the Asean, said. Mercado is now the secretary-general
of the Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (Eropa).
Mercado, a speaker during a forum
on climate change for Southeast Asian diplomats, government officials and
civil-society representatives held at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)
last week, told the BusinessMirror that there is a greater need for the Asean
to be resilient to climate change and support national and global efforts to
fight it.
“A stronger common Asean stand
[on climate change] is still possible. It is also imperative,” he said.
Asean groups the Philippines,
Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam.
Nirawan Pipitsombat, head of the
Climate Change Office of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in
Thailand, said that while Asean has attempted to draw a common statement for
several years already, the member-countries of the regional bloc should support
each other on arriving at solutions to address climate change.
“We have failed several times to
come up with a common stand but I do believe that we have to support each other
on how to implement the Asean’s action plans to combat climate change such as
prioritizing actions on adaptation [and] identifying and studying vulnerable
sites and other environmental problems,” Pipitsombat added.
Zelda Soriano, political adviser
of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, also urged the Asean member-countries to set
aside conflict and act together to address the environmental challenges facing
the region.
“Our region is faced with so many
environmental risks and problems and we need to consolidate our efforts to find
out regional solutions to address climate change. Agreeing on a low-carbon
development framework in its regional economic integration is the opportunity
for the Asean governments to address the particular vulnerability of the region
to climate impact without compromising economic development,” Soriano said.
Riza Bernabe, policy and research
adviser of Oxfam in Southeast Asia, said
past climate-change negotiations failed to deliver on the crucial issue
of ensuring concrete sources of funds to fill the $100-billion Green Climate
Fund (GCF), a mechanism to help developing countries adapt to climate change
and curb carbon emissions.
“While we are happy to see that
some countries support efforts to get the GCF up and running, the fund up to
now remains an empty shell. We need a reliable and predictable flow of money
going into the fund to help us combat climate change,” Bernabe added.
IMELDA V. ABAÑO
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