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A vague sort of climate pact for Asia

Leaders of 16 Asian countries, including top polluters China and Japan, committed to “stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the long run”, says Reuters. The ‘pact’, struck at the East Asia Summit (EAS) in Singapore, does not set caps on emissions or otherwise quantify what efforts might be made to reduce the impacts of climate change (though it does promise they will “work to achieve an EAS-wide aspirational goal of increasing cumulative forest cover in the region by at least 15 million hectares of all types of forests by 2020”); and leaders emphasized that economic growth remains a priority for them.

“Climate change has to be addressed — but they cannot leave people in absolute poverty,” Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told Reuters. "This is a declaration of intent, not a negotiated treaty of what we are going to do to restrict ourselves.”

The declaration is posted on the ASEAN website.

At the same meeting, Japan pledged to provide US$2 billion over the next five years in aid of fighting environmental problems in East Asia (Japan Times).

Behind-the-scene details can be found in the AFX report on Forbes’ website, which adds that the countries are in favour of nuclear power, and has some interesting notes on how a goal for reducing energy intensity by a set value was dropped after apparent objections from India.

Cross-posted from Nicola Jones on The Great Beyond.

Comments

  1. Alexander Ač said:

    Common,

    does anybody really believe, that we can sustain economic growth and at the same time population growth and at the same time to reduce our impact on environment?

    Anybody? 😉

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