The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has agreed to draft a declaration to adopt the Philippines’ call for bolder and significant greenhouse gas emissions cuts by developed countries to address climate change.

Secretary Heherson Alvarez, presidential adviser on global warming and climate change who is heading the Philippine delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Bonn, Germany, said the regional bloc has agreed to form “synergies” and urge developing countries, including China and India to cut their GHG emissions.

“In the end, the parties agreed to draft an ASEAN declaration with the proposed issues the Philippines recommended, plus the proposals of other nations,” he said.

During the Bonn conference, the Philippines submitted interventions that call for deep and early cut of carbon dioxide emissions by Annex I Parties of more than 30 to 40 percent from 2013 to 2017, and more than 50 percent from 2018 to 2022 based on 1990 levels. While, Cambodia and Indonesia proposed for the inclusion of Reduction of Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). Singapore, on the other hand, stressed the need to build on previous ASEAN declarations.

“In ASEAN, creeping climate change is a common occurrence and its impact is a rising destruction on whole communities and food systems. We must respond to protect the region and its extremely vulnerable population,” Alvarez said.