Many meetings on environmental matters in Singapore this week

Business Times 27 Oct 09;

ENVIRONMENTAL matters will be the focus of several forums in Singapore this week.

Two of these began yesterday - the Carbon Forum Asia trade fair and conference, which ran parallel to the UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism Designated National Authority Forum. And Singapore will host three other regional meetings on the environment later this week.

Asean environment ministers will meet on Thursday to talk about sustainable cities, water resources management, the coastal and marine environment, nature conservation and bio-diversity and climate change.

They will be joined by the environment ministers from China, South Korea and Japan on Friday to discuss collaborative environmental activities and projects.

At the third meeting, also on Friday, Asean environment ministers will review the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. They will also discuss outcomes from a sub-regional forum on the prevention and mitigation of land and forest fires, to be held on Wednesday.

At yesterday's opening of the Carbon Forum Asia trade fair and conference, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran spoke of how Singapore has been gearing up to 'participate actively in this dynamic new sector'.

There has been an 'influx of new entrants in the carbon space' in the past two years, he said, with companies such as carbon project developer Caspervandertak Consulting and UK carbon management consultancy The Carbon Neutral Company setting up offices here.

Plans to launch the Singapore Mercantile Exchange at year-end are now on-track too, Mr Iswaran said. The commodities futures exchange will offer carbon trading.

Singapore hosts Asean haze forum
my paper, AsiaOne 27 Oct 09;

INDONESIAN provincial governors will be meeting in Singapore for the first time with five Asean government representatives for a forum tomorrow to discuss how to fight the haze problem.

The inaugural haze forum will also let global environmental groups and private firms - like Conservation International and the World Wide Fund for Nature - explore projects that they can work with governments to further prevent land and forest fires in the region.

The forum was conceived in August this year at a meeting here for environment ministers from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

All five countries are affected by haze problems.

The Asean environment ministers and their representatives are also meeting on Thursday to review the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.

The agreement has been in force since 2003 to manage pollution arising
from burning forested land.

So far, eight of the 10 Asean countries, except the Philippines and Indonesia, have signed it.

Also on the agenda for the environment ministers: the establishment of an Asean working group on climate change
that Thailand will chair.

They are expected to adopt a resolution to address environmental sustainability and climate-change issues as well.