The first East Asia Summit Environment Ministers Meeting, the 11th Informal ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment, the 7th ASEAN+3 Environment Ministerial Meeting, and the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transboundary Haze Pollution, were hosted by Vietnam’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

The participating ministers acknowledged the efforts made by ASEAN member countries in preventing and controlling forest fires. They pledged to maintain preventive measures and proposed that international and regional partners support ASEAN’s initiatives to cope with forest fires.

The ministers agreed to give priority to “environmentally sustainable cities” in environmental cooperation in the East Asian region, in order to address the challenges posed by rapidly growing urbanisation and other issues relating to climate change, energy and the environment.

They shared experiences in urban planning, urban greenery, sewage treatment, water supplies, waste management, controlling soil, water and air pollution and climate change.

The first East Asia Summit Environment Ministers Meeting was lauded as an important step towards making high-ranking East Asian officials’ ideas on environment cooperation a reality.

During the event, the ministers praised Vietnam’s initiative to set up an environmental education centre for the East Asian region, regarding it as a useful initiative.

They also appreciated ongoing and new initiatives promoted by member countries such as “Low Carbon Society”, “Compact Cities”, “Eco-Cities” “Environmentally Sustainable Transport” and “Clean Asia Initiative”.