RP urges Asean to unite on climate change

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Climate Change Secretary Heherson Alvarez has urged member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to have a unified position on climate change before the 16^th Conference of Parties (COP-16) in Mexico at the end of the year.

Alvarez met with ASEAN leaders at the sidelines of the 11^th session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on further commitments for Annex I parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP 11) and the 9th session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA 9) in Bonn, Germany over the weekend.

“The ASEAN must be a dialogue body. Because our nations, all the ASEAN nations, are now trying to seek for a common denominator, for common prosperity, for common viewpoint and clarity on complex problems for the development of international relations,” Alvarez told ASEAN delegates. “And since we as delegates are engaged in that most serious task of climate change we should seek to be like the leaders of our motherland seeking for a common accord and must continue to talk to each other. Let us build the habit of thinking as ASEAN.”

Alvarez asked the regional bloc to push for deep and immediate cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by developed countries and the creation of a legally binding agreement to continue the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.