Leaders of Asia-Pacific countries must cooperate and initiate bold steps to pursue green solutions to ensure the region’s long-term economic recovery, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates of a U.N. high-level meeting in South Korea.
“Now is the time to focus on green growth strategies. That means renewable energy sources, clean and low carbon technologies, mass transit, reforestation… and more,” Ban said in a message to the high-level session of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, which seeks to review the region’s development policy.
Representatives from 53 countries and nine associate nations participating in the meeting are expected to present common regional development policies, including those on financial infrastructure and sustainable growth, at the meeting’s conclusion tomorrow.
Asia and the Pacific was the world’s fastest-growing region in 2009, UNESCAP said in a recently published report. The report encouraged the region to engage in more intraregional trade and boost the development of its markets to better support long-term growth.
“The opportunity is now for Asia-Pacific to emerge as a leader in the global economy, in the realm of social progress, and in safeguarding our global environment,” UNESCAP Executive Secretary Noeleen Heyzer said, according to a U.N. news release.
