Asian leaders aim for green region, promote nuclear energy

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SINGAPORE, Nov 17 (AFP): Asian leaders from 16 countries will pledge to increase the region's forest cover by 2020 and promote the use of nuclear energy during their annual summit here next week.
A draft statement obtained by the news agency today said the leaders due to meet Wednesday will also throw their support behind a UN plan as the "core mechanism" to tackle global warming.
Leaders from 10 Southeast Asian nations, along with their counterparts from Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, will meet Wednesday for the East Asia summit.
The meeting will take place one day after the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
In the draft statement, the leaders pledge to work towards an "aspirational goal of increasing cumulative forest cover in the region by at least 15 million hectares (37 million acres) of all types of forests by 2020".
The United Nations warned earlier this year that illegal logging by foreign firms could lead to a 98 per cent loss of Southeast Asia's tropical rain forests by 2022, threatening the habitat of tens of thousands of endangered orangutans.
The leaders will also agree to cooperate on the "development and the use of civilian nuclear power" amid concerns soaring oil prices could hurt regional economic growth.
Environmental groups have voiced concerns over the disposal of nuclear wastes and the danger that plutonium-a key ingredient for making atomic weapons-could fall into the wrong hands.
Another "aspirational goal"-to reduce energy intensity by at least 25 per cent by 2030 -- has yet to be agreed upon because of reservations expressed by India, according to the draft.
The leaders affirmed their commitment to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change as the "core mechanism" to deal with global warming, according to the draft.
Meanwhile, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong today called on the 10 members of ASEAN to work together to accelerate economic integration in order to keep up with Asian giants China and India.
A landmark charter and a blueprint for an economic community to be signed at next week's Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit will bring the bloc closer together but more needs to be done, Lee said.
"Our countries offer complementary advantages to businesses, and a neutral core around which the rest of Asia can build economic ties, and a regional framework of cooperation," he told a gathering of business leaders.
"To sustain this, ASEAN has itself to become more integrated and cohesive," he said. "Only thus can we keep up with larger and stronger economies like China and India."
ASEAN states must show the "political will" to implement both the charter and the economic community blueprint, which sets the stage for a single market and production base by 2015, Lee said.
He said the blueprint and the charter, which marks the first time that the 40-year-old bloc will codify its basic principles and organisational rules, would be "critical in enhancing ASEAN's credibility and attracting investors."
The economic blueprint, which brings forward ASEAN's target date for the creation of a free market zone from 2020 to 2015, will mean greater benefits for companies and the more than half a billion people in the region, said Lee.