(VOVworld) - The 2015 ASEAN joint statement on climate change was adopted by participants of the 13^th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment (AMME 13), which closed on Thursday in Hanoi. Approving the joint statement on climate change was one of the major aims of the 13^th AMME. The statement is scheduled to be submitted at the 27th ASEAN Summit held in Malaysia in November and presented at the 21st Conference of Parties held in Paris in December. Nguyen Van Tai, head of the Viet Nam Environment Administration announced the main outcomes achieved at the 13th AMME at a press conference held on Thursday. He said ASEAN ministers hailed Vietnam’s initiative to develop a Declaration on ASEAN Post 2015 Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Agenda for approval at the 27^th ASEAN Summit.

The 13th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment

The ASEAN ministers reviewed regional co-operation efforts on a number of environmental issues and discussed new initiatives to promote regional co-operation. High on the meeting agenda were measures to address air poluttion in Indonesia which has had adverse affects on other countries in the region. ASEAN countries have approved Indonesia’s proposal to establish an Indonesia-based ASEAN Coordinating Center to tackle trans-border pollution. ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh said: "We have set a target of a haze-free ASEAN by 2020. The ASEAN members pledged to implement drastic measures to monitor trans-border haze."

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha said issues related to water resource management, flood discharge, and water resource pollution, were addressed: "Vietnam has recently become a signatory to a convention on the exploitation and use of trans-border rivers while some other ASEAN countries haven’t. This requires ASEAN countries to adopt appropriate policies regulating the exploitation and use of trans-border rivers. Vietnam is cooperating with other ASEAN countries to review the construction of hydro-power plants that would affect downstream areas."

The 14^th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment is set to take place in Brunei in 2017.