Asian leaders promote green region, nuclear power

Singapore (ANTARA News) - 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 Agence France-Presse on Saturday said the leaders will also throw their support behind a UN plan as the "core mechanism" for tackling global warming.

Leaders from 10 Southeast Asian nations, along with their counterparts from Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, are to release the statement when they meet Wednesday for the East Asia summit.

In the draft, 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".

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders, in a separate statement to be issued after their summit on Tuesday, will pledge to increase forest cover by at least 10 million hectares within the same timeframe.

The United Nations warned earlier this year that illegal logging by foreign firms could lead to a 98 percent loss of Southeast Asia's tropical rain forests by 2022, threatening endangered wildlife and the livelihoods of local peoples.

The 16 Asian leaders will on Wednesday also agree to cooperate on the "development and the use of civilian nuclear power," amid concerns soaring oil prices could hurt regional economic growth, according to the draft., Asea

But they will stress that the use of atomic energy will be carried out in a "manner ensuring nuclear safety, security and non-proliferation" by adopting safeguards within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Environmental groups have voiced concerns over the disposal of nuclear waste and the danger that plutonium -- a key ingredient for making atomic weapons -- could fall into the wrong hands.

A key focus of concern is Southeast Asian extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for a series of attacks in the region including the 2002 Bali bombings.

The leaders will affirm their commitment to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change as the "core mechanism" to deal with global warming, according to the draft.

ASEAN member Indonesia is hosting a UN-backed climate change conference on the resort island of Bali next month, at which delegates will try to thrash out a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire in 2012.

The leaders will pledge to increasingly use cleaner alternative energy sources but stress any new commitments by developing nations on cutting greenhouse gas emissions should take their level of development into account.

Empty rhetoric?

Rafael Senga, the Asia-Pacific energy coordinator for the World Wildlife Fund, described the draft statement as "empty rhetoric," saying it lacks firm commitments.

"Rhetoric must be scaled down," he told AFP.

"We want to see a more pro-active stance from both ASEAN and the East Asia Summit. It has been a practice that after making statements at the summits, nothing happens after that."

The East Asia leaders' statement says the region's rapid economic growth, while helping to ease poverty, will lead to higher energy demand and thus the need to ensure affordable and sustainable energy supplies.

An expected doubling of Asia's current urban population of 1.7 billion people by 2030 will also pose environmental challenges, the leaders say.