LEAD: Climate change to top agenda in meeting of EAS ministers
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MANILA, July 31 — Foreign ministers from 16 Asia-Pacific nations met in Manila on Tuesday to discuss climate change and energy issues as the international community gears up for a series of key international conferences aimed at curbing global warming, Japanese officials said.
‘’We would like to discuss the climate change issue, keeping in mind next year’s summit,'’ a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said, underscoring the importance which Japan attaches to the issue in light of the summit of the Group of Eight major nations which Japan will host next year.
The official said Tuesday’s gathering among member nations of the East Asia Summit is a ‘’good opportunity'’ to raise the awareness of nations such as India and China which are major greenhouse gas emitters on how to deal with the repercussions of climate change.
The East Asia Summit involves the 10 ASEAN member states — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — plus their three Northeast Asian dialogue partners –Japan, China and South Korea — as well as Australia, New Zealand and India.
Alberto Romulo, foreign minister of the Philippines which is the current ASEAN chair, told a group of reporters that the EAS foreign ministers are expected to call for the ‘’early and unconditional release'’ of South Korean hostages in Afghanistan in a statement to be issued after their meeting.
South Koreans, mostly nurses and teachers in their 20s and 30s who are part of a Christian group, were taken hostage at gunpoint on July 19 while traveling to the southern city Kandahar from the Afghan capital of Kabul.
The Taliban initially demanded the withdrawal of South Korean military personnel from Afghanistan and have since been pressing for the release of Taliban prisoners.
Climate change has been a major topic for multilateral meetings, most recently at the G-8 summit in Germany’s Heiligendamm in June.
The G-8 leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States agreed then to consider proposed initiatives by Japan and other parties on climate change which include at least a halving of global emissions by 2050.
Interest is high on creating a post-Kyoto Protocol climate change framework that includes major greenhouse gas emitters, notably China, India and the United States.
Critics say the current climate change pact, the Kyoto Protocol, is ineffective as it fails to cover emerging nations such as China and India. The United States has shunned the agreement.
Filed by Maria Robson under Development, Climate Change, Conflict Prevention and Human Security