Jakarta, Mar 21 (IANS): Hundreds of parliamentary members across the world have gathered in Indonesia's resort island of Bali, as the 144th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly and related meetings kicked off on Sunday.

The assembly meeting was opened by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, and welcoming speeches were presented by IPU President Duarte Pacheco, a parliament member from Portugal, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Xinhua news agency reported.

In his speech, Widodo addressed the issue of climate change, calling all world's parliament members to support and invest in new and renewable energy as well as strengthen energy transfer.

"From coal-based energy, we have been committed to moving to renewable energy. It looks easy to say, but in practice, it is not that easy," Widodo said.

Around 1,000 participants from more than 100 countries attended the IPU opening ceremony, according to Indonesia's House of Representatives' Speaker Puan Maharani.