Japan pledges 2bln dlr Asia aid to fight climate change 2 hours, 35 minutes ago
SINGAPORE (AFP) - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Wednesday unveiled a two-billion-dollar aid package to help developing Asian nations fight pollution and combat climate change.
The initiative, announced by Fukuda at a summit of Asian leaders, includes soft loans and training programmes over five years, and is aimed at helping the region tackle global warming and push forward with economic development.
The package "includes loan and grant aid as well as technological training, targeting East Asian countries," a Japanese official said, without specifying which nations would receive aid.
"For ASEAN nations, the efforts to address climate change must not hinder them from seeking development and economic prosperity," said another official.
At Wednesday's summit, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea issued a separate declaration on fighting climate change.
The new Japanese aid is aimed specifically at helping developing Asian countries tackle air and water pollution, as well as improve sewage processing.
Rafael Senga, Asia-Pacific energy coordinator for conservation group WWF, commended the Japanese pledge and said other rich nations should follow suit to help large emerging economies "develop in a cleaner way".
"The offer of Japan is very timely because it will help countries like China and India achieve the targets that they have set and implement the laws that they have enacted," he said.
Senga noted that both countries had long said they were willing to adopt environmental protection policies but that implementation was the key and China was lagging way behind its targets.
Japan has long relied on aid as a primary instrument of its foreign policy and considers Southeast Asia a key region to exert influence.
Pollution in China is already affecting parts of western Japan, and Japan is keen to share information to help other countries clean up the environment while ensuring economic growth.
Fukuda's pledge came ahead of crucial UN-backed global climate change talks next month on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
The Bali talks, expected to involve more than 100 governments, are intended to generate a global consensus on a follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol, named after the Japanese city where it was first negotiated.
Environmentalists and aid agencies warned in a report released Monday that decades of development in Asia would be reversed and the lives of millions of people threatened or disrupted by climate change.
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