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  Today Online 10 Jan 07
Asean must act on climate change now
Letter from Abigail Jabines
Climate & Energy Campaign
Greenpeace Southeast Asia

I refer to the report, "Weather challenge" (Dec 12) and agree that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) needs to take up leadership in addressing climate change.

The organisation has never put climate change on top of its agenda in spite of all scientific evidence pointing to the fact that this is a region bound to be hit hardest by climate change.

Doubly unfortunate is the complete absence of policies among South-east Asian countries for adaptation and mitigation of climate change, let alone policies for the massive uptake of renewable energy and energy efficiency measures that should help in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Typhoon Utor (Seniang) was cited by the Philippine government last month as the main reason for the postponement of the Asean leaders' summit.

Whether or not the typhoon was indeed the reason, it cannot be denied that Asean was reminded quite forcefully by the very issue it has chosen to ignore. The re-scheduled summit is an opportunity for the leaders to immediately find ways to avert climate change and safeguard the welfare of the region's citizens.

I do hope that our leaders accept this challenge.
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Related articles on Global Issues: Climate Change
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