Asia-Europe experts to meet in Jakarta

JAKARTA: Around 250 high-profile environmental experts from Asia and Europe will gather this week in Jakarta to discuss energy, conflict, natural resource management and other issues, the Indonesian biodiversity foundation, Kehati, said.

Titled "1/3 of Our Planet: What Can Asia and Europe do for Sustainable Development?", the conference, which will be held from Nov. 23 to Nov. 25, 2005, follows on from the three round tables held since 2003 on sustainable development, climate change and renewable energy.

Indonesian Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) executive director Klaus Topfer will deliver the keynote addressees.

The meeting, which will be the largest Asia-Europe meeting on the environment, seems to be timely.

"This conference on the topic of sustainable development, particularly the question of energy and the environment, comes at a crucial time of record-high oil prices, which calls for closer cooperation between the two regions (continents). We are proud to host such an important meeting in Indonesia," State Minister of the Environment Rachmat Witoelar said.

Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) official Jessica Yom informed The Jakarta Post that the recommendations of the meeting would be presented to Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) governments through the platform of the ASEM Environmental Ministerial meeting. They would also be distributed to civil society organizations on both continents.

The gathering, known as the Asia-Europe Environment Forum, is co-organized by the Singapore-based ASEF, Germany's Hanns-Seidel Foundation , and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and the UNEP and hosted by Kehati. --JP