According to Noeleen Heyzer, Asia and the Pacific needed to promote______. [orig

The executive secretary of the United Nation’ s economic commission for Asia and the Pacific, Noeleen Heyzer, says investment in new climate change technologies in Asia and the Pacific needs to be stepped up, despite the economic slowdown.
    In an interview with VOA, Heyzer says the issue of climate change needs to be addressed, given the consequences from the impact of climate change on economies struggling to recover from the global slowdown.
    Recent reports have raised fears climate change is threatening or could reverse decades of social and economic progress across Southeast Asia.
    The Singapore-based Economy and Environment Program for South East Asia says the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Sumatra and Indonesia are all countries at risk to the impact of severe climate changes.
    Heyzer says that, as countries put in place economic stimulus packages to revitalize economies, they also needed to generate what he calls "economies of the future". She says Asia and the Pacific needed to promote more private-sector investment in climate-change technologies.
    Heyzer says the crisis should be viewed as an opportunity to promote economies where growth is more sustainable, in the longer term.
    The call comes amid growing pressure on Asia to take a higher profile in UN climate change talks under the Kyoto protocol. A new deal on climate change is expected to be agreed to in Copenhagen in December.