PRESIDENT HOPES APA TO SUPPORT COPENHAGEN MEETING

Bandung, Dec 8 (ANTARA) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has expressed hope that the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) would support the ongoing United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen from Dec 7-18, 2009.

The president made the remark in his speech to open the 4th APA conference at the Merdeka building on Asia Africa street here on Tuesday morning.

"The Asian Parliamentary Assembly which represents the people of Asia is expected to encourage and to make a success the Copenhagen meeting, and to support the agreement which is to be yielded there," the president said.

President Yudhoyono asserted the Copenhagen conference should yield a global consensus which is more effective than the Kyoto Protocol to reduce green house gas emission.

"Remember that a Copenhagen agreement will have a direct relation with the future of human race on the face of the earth," President Yudhoyono said.

According to the head of state no country in the world would be able to deal with all problems, including climate change, by itself.

Therefore, he said all parties should cooperate at global and regional order.

At the end of 2009, countries around the world would converge in Copenhagen to make an agreement about climate change in place of Kyoto Protocol which would expire in 2012.

But to date there are still different views among developed countries and developing countries on the agreement on the reduction of green house gas emission.

President Yudhoyono said Indonesia, which hosted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bali in 2007, was one of the countries which was actively supporting the success of the Copenhagen conference.

The Indonesian government had also set a target of gas emission reduction by 26 percent in 2020 while many other countries have yet to set their target.

President Yudhoyono is scheduled to attend the Copenhagen conference on his last lag of visit to a number of European countries next week.