Environmental Conservation: Committee Holds 1st Coordination Meeting

The first coordination meeting of the Environmental Conservation Committee was held in Nay Pyi Taw on Monday.

At the meeting, Chairman of the Committee Union minister for Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation U Khin Maung Yi said that the value of global ecosystem services is losing between 4 trillion and 20 trillion USD annually due to the lack of protection of the environment and ecosystems. Due to environmental pollution, 4.6 trillion USD are lost annually, accounting for 6.2 per cent of global economic output.

At least 9 million people die every year from air and water pollution and 29 per cent of the world’s land area is degraded, affecting the livelihood of 1.3 billion to 3.2 billion people, he said. Extreme weather events cost 127 billion USD annually and it is important to have a strong environmental governance that all stakeholders can work together to address the problems of environmental pollution and climate change.

He continued to say that environmental protection activities should be integrated in economic and social development activities under the leadership of the committee. He added the necessity to incorporate Myanmar climate change policy, strategic and core action plans into relevant sectoral projects.

He called on relevant development departments to systematically manage the action plans and policy of Myanmar’s National Waste Management for the systematic management of waste hazards. He stressed the importance of the cooperation of the non-governmental organizations, private sector and the people in reducing the current and future environmental degradation and adverse effects of climate change.

This meeting discussed the implementation of the tasks and further plans regarding the environmental issues and climate change.