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Energy and Environment Program

Pacific Rim Energy Workshops

In 1983, the Program initiated an experimental workshop in Hawaii on energy fuels trade on the Pacific Rim.

In April, 2002, the 17th Pacific Rim Energy Workshop was held in Seoul, Korea. Twenty-eight experts from 12 countries considered how to ensure an adequate energy supply for developmental reasons while managing demand growth for financial and environmental reasons. Co-hosted by the Council on Energy and Environment/Korea, and the Seoul City Gas Company, the workshop attracted participants ranging from an environmental researcher from Mongolia to the CEO of Malaysia's national electric utility. The report of the meeting, Energy Supply Increase and Searching for Strategies, is available on line and from the Publications Department.

The 1999 meeting was held in Kanagawa, Japan. The Asia-Pacific Energy Research Centre (APERC), the energy research arm of the Asia Pacific Economic Council (APEC) was the co-sponsor and host. Representatives of 17 countries or economies discussed electricity restructuring and fuels trade in the region. With All Deliberate Speed: Electricity Restructuring in Asia concludes that the benefits of deregulation are not disputed, but that concerns about the impacts of the transition will ensure that the pace will vary from country to country.

In 1997 the Ministry of Development and Brunei-Shell co-hosted the meeting in Brunei on the topic Powering Asia: Is Gas the Answer? Questions of fuel choice for electricity generation were examined for the region and for specific countries.

The theme of the 1996 meeting was current and future impacts of technology on conventional energy supply and demand, interfuel competition, the role of new and renewable energy sources, mitigation of environmental impact, and energy and environmental policy in Asia. The meeting, hosted by the Ministry of Energy, the Electric Research Institute, and the Mexican Petroleum Institute in Cuernavaca, Mexico, addressed the issue at both a general system level, and then as applied to specific fuels and countries.