The 21st ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on the Environment opened here on Wednesday, with participation of about 150 representatives from ASEAN member states and six dialogue countries including Japan, China, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Australia and India.

Vann Monyneath, chairman of the ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment (ASOEN) said at the meeting that climate change is a challenge not only to ASEAN countries but also to the whole world.

The chairman said as most of the ASEAN countries have coasts, the region should cooperate to build measures to respond to climate change and create breakthroughs in the key field of the environmental protection.

The delegates in the meeting discussed a range of topics on urban environment including natural resources effectiveness, 3R Policy (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle), city of bio-diversity, and introduction to low carbon cities of East Asia.

ASEAN groups ten countries including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.