APEC official pitches economy-specific energy efficiency measures

MANILA, Philippines - The 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) should embark on economy-specific energy efficiency measures through new technologies to meet the regional goals by 2035.

Energy measures should not be “one-size-fits-all” as each member economy has different levels of development and energy resources, Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) secretary general Eduardo Pedrosa said in a briefing in Pasay City yesterday.

“The Asia Pacific region has a set of economies with very very different levels of development. Some very advance economies, some still emerging, some with natural endowments in the energy sources. Canada, of course has a lot of energy resources, Indonesia has endowments in, lets say, coal. Another thing is Canada and Australia natural gas,” he said.

“It’s very hard to come up with a sort of generic or a single set of things that this region should do in terms of energy needs... So this leaves each economy at its own to decide how they are gonna go about doing that,” Pedrosa added.

PECC is a tripartite partnership of senior individuals from business and industry, government, academic and other intellectual circles in the Asia Pacific region.

In 2011, APEC leaders aimed to reduce energy intensity by at least 45 percent, based on the 2005 level, by 2035, which was re-affirmed by APEC member economies in September this year.

During the 12th APEC Energy Ministers’ Meeting (EMM12) held in Cebu last month, the 21-member economies agreed to lay down action plans to concretize the cooperation’s energy resilience initiatives that would, in turn, achieve energy goals.

Among the initiatives to be implemented include the adoption of disaster-proofing of energy infrastructure, advancement of cutting-edge energy efficiency technologies, community-based clean energy use in energy poverty-stricken areas and improvement in energy trade and investment in APEC through public-private partnerships (PPP).

Pedrosa noted cutting gas emissions is “a very difficult issue to grapple with” but could be done through energy efficiency and a shift to renewable energy.

“We did some survey in 2011 [and] the single priority that the policy community thought that policymakers could do was the promotion of energy efficiency,” he said.

“Other things that people look at is increased use of solar, increased use of marine energy. There are questions about the future of nuclear technology and so on,” he added.