APEC to shoot for 25% boost in energy efficiency

Asia-Pacific leaders are planning to set an ambitious target for improving energy efficiency across the region when they hold a summit Sept. 8 and 9 in Sydney.

According to a draft outline of a planned statement on climate change, they will pledge "at least" a 25 percent improvement by 2030 from the level in 2005.

It will be the first statement specifically on global warming issued by the leaders of the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, reflecting their determination to take the lead in crafting a post-Kyoto Protocol framework.

Kyoto is due to expire in 2012.

The target would also accelerate the transfer of energy-saving technology from Japan to emerging Asian economies and make the region more resilient to surges in oil prices, according to energy experts. The APEC economies currently account for about 60 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

The leaders will agree to set individual goals and action plans for reducing energy intensity — the amount of energy required for every dollar produced in the economy — across the region by a quarter, according to the draft outline.

Progress will be reviewed through an APEC-wide "peer review mechanism" before reporting back to an APEC summit in 2010 in Japan, the draft says.

The leaders will call for "comprehensive participation, including contributions by all major economies" such as the United States and China — which are also the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters — in a post-Kyoto Protocol regime.

They will agree to seek a "more flexible and diverse framework" that takes into account differences in national circumstances, such as resource endowments, land use, social development objectives and institutional capacities, the draft says.

These principles are in line with Japan's flexible approach to ensure inclusion of the U.S., China, India and other major greenhouse gas emitters.

The Kyoto Protocol, formulated in 1997 under a U.N. framework, fails to cover the U.S., China and India, leaving its effectiveness very much in doubt.

The draft contains no reference to such mechanisms as emissions trading and a cap on the amount of carbon dioxide a country or industry can emit, a sign that APEC members are distancing themselves from the Europe-led "Cap and Trade" system for reducing emissions.

Although the draft contains a numerical target for boosting APEC-wide energy efficiency, it does not spell out cuts in the volume of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, leading critics to say the set of measures lacks the necessary teeth to effectively combat global warming.

The draft touches only indirectly on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Cool Earth 50" initiative aimed at halving global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, saying the leaders will "appreciate the national decisions made by some APEC economies to propose a long-term global emissions goal."

During the Sydney summit, the APEC leaders will agree to create what the group calls the Asia-Pacific Network for Energy Technology, or APNet, aimed at achieving technology breakthroughs in areas such as clean fossil energy and renewable energy.

APEC plans to launch the network next year, with participation open to "all relevant research bodies," the draft says.

The APEC leaders will also agree to establish the Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Rehabilitation and Management, a China-led initiative to promote afforestation and forest protection in the region.

They will "agree on the importance of sustainable forest management, stopping illegal logging and the benefit of forests as carbon reservoirs," noting that the APEC region as a whole accounts for about half of the global forest area.