The Minister was accompanied by a high-level delegation including Dr.
Hideyuki Mori, President of Institute for Global Environmental
Strategies (IGES); Dr. Daiske Sano, Director, IGES Regional Centre,
Bangkok; Dr. Kazuhiko Takemoto, Director, Institute for the Advanced
Studies of Sustainability, United Nations University (UNU-IAS); and
Prof. Emeritus Mario Tabucanon, former AIT Acting President.
H.E. Mr. Soichiro Sekhi hoped that the Government of Japan, AIT, UNU
and IGES will jointly work towards the issue of climate change.
“2015 will be a critical year as far as the issue of climate change is
concerned, and the AIT conference can play an important role,” the
Minister said.
Welcoming the delegation, AIT President Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai
elaborated that AIT, along with the Government of France, and top
international organizations will be holding a climate change forum from
1-3 July 2014 where the focus will be on the ASEAN perspective on
climate change. “The forum will come out with a position paper which
will contribute towards the COP21 deliberations in Paris,” Prof. Worsak
said.
The AIT President added that the forum will organize both scientific
and technocrat sessions. While the scientific session will be intended
for scientists and experts, the technocrat session will engage public
policy makers in order to help in the dissemination of knowledge in the
10 ASEAN countries. Besides the ASEAN countries, AIT intends to invite
scientists from France, Japan, China, and Korea among others.
Dr. Hideyuki Mori of IGES highlighted the relationship between IGES
and AIT, adding that the Regional Resource Centre for Asia and Pacific
(RR.CAP) had been working with his organization for a long time.
Dr. Kazuhiko Takemoto stated that AIT and UNU are jointly engaged in
the Promotion of Sustainability in Postgraduate Education and Research
Network (ProSPER.Net). Prof. Tabucanon also mentioned AIT’s role in
ProSPER.Net and the forthcoming program on Sustainanle Consumption and
Production.
Prof. Sivanappan Kumar, Vice President for Academic Affairs, AIT;
Prof. Kazuo Yamamoto, Vice President for Resource Development, AIT; Dr.
Gabrielle Groves, Head, External Relations and Communications Office
(ERCO); Ms. Adelaida Roman, Head, Network Support, RR.CAP; Mr.
Guilberto Borongan, Senior Programme Officer, RR.CAP; and Dr. Ram Lal
Verma, Mr. Marco Silvestri, and Mr. Ahmed Iftekhar Khan, Programme
Officers, RR.CAP, also participated in the deliberations.
