Belem, Nov. 19 -- Amid the ongoing COP30 session in Belem, Brazil, Malaysia's Secretary-General for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability, Datuk Ching Thoo Kim, said that ASEAN (Association of South East Nations) needs to urgently establish its own negotiating bloc at the UN climate talks to better represent its interests on the world stage, and strengthen its climate security.
Speaking to the Singapore-based Straits Times at Malaysia's pavilion at COP30 in Belem, Ching Thoo noted that despite its emergence on the world stage as one of the world's largest economies -- recording a collective GDP of USD 4.1 trillion in 2024, making it the fifth largest economy globally - it remains extremely vulnerable to the man...