Asian Lawmakers: Region Pivotal in Fighting Climate Change

Asian lawmakers say their region is pivotal to any global efforts at limiting climate change and they are committed to finding solutions.

At a just concluded meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Vietnam, lawmakers from countries across the region gathered to share their fears stemming from hotter global temperatures – as well as what to do about it – from incorporating the input of indigenous peoples, to carving out underground reservoirs for times of flooding.

“Climate change has no passport,” IPU Secretary-General Martin Chungong said at the three-day meeting in Ho Chi Minh City, which ended Saturday. “It’s cross-national.”

The host city also exemplified why the Asia-Pacific region is at the center of environmental concerns worldwide. The region has one billion urban dwellers, more than the rest of the globe combined, according to the U.N. Development Program. And urbanites have an outsized impact on their ecosystems.

Ho Chi Minh City, a massive metropolis of 10 million people, generates waste and consumes water at a volume equal to 17 times the average across Vietnam, said the city’s Communist Party chief, Nguyen Thien Nhan. Read more….