Indonesia wants ASEAN to adopt Copenhagen Accord

0 CommentsPrint E-mail Xinhua, March 29, 2010
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Indonesia will lobby other Southeast Asian countries to adopt the Copenhagen Accord at the upcoming ASEAN summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, next month, as only Jakarta and Singapore have done so, a local media reported on Monday.

Indonesian foreign ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah told the Jakarta Post that senior ASEAN officials would hold a series of meetings ahead of the summit to prepare text of joint statements including that on climate change.

An Indonesian source said that Indonesia wanted all ASEAN member states to adopt the Copenhagen Accord as 111 countries of the 190 parties to the UN climate talks had already submitted emission cut targets.

"We hope other ASEAN countries follow Indonesia and Singapore to adopt the Copenhagen Accord," the source said.

Indonesia, the first developing country to voluntarily commit to emission reductions, pledged to slash emission by 26 percent by 2020 funded only by a state budget of 83 trillion rupiah (about 9. 1 million U.S. dollars).

"Indonesia says if developed countries provided a further 168 trillion rupiah (about 18.4 million U.S. dollars), the country would increase emission cuts up to 41 percent, the highest in the region.

Neighboring country of Singapore, pledged to cut emission by 16 percent by 2020. Both Indonesia and Singapore have adopted the Copenhagen Accord, making the promised emission cut targets binding for the two countries.

Experts said that ASEAN countries, with a combined area of 4.4 million square kilometers and an average per capita income of 496 U.S. dollars, were vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

ASEAN established a climate change working group that is tasked with drafting a joint statement.

The Copenhagen Accord was adopted last December after participants at the United Nations climate conference failed to reach a consensus on a legally binding treaty.

The accord, which was only a note for the conference, required parties to submit emission cut targets.

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