Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Matthew Hulbert, EER
This year presents a new set of challenges for Chinese energy endeavours, and nowhere more so than in oil.
Despite analysts bemoaning China’s ‘cavalier’ approach to risk as it strikes upstream deals in exotic locations, Beijing always knew it would have to cash in some of its chips when geopolitical cards were put on the table. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
China’s spectacular industrial growth has been associated with equally spectacular growth in Chinese energy and resource consumption.
While Chinese energy efficiency (the amount of GDP produced per unit of energy consumed) has risen steadily, except for a few years early this decade, aggregate energy consumption has been lifted by a hugely energy-intensive phase of industrialisation and the spread of motorised transportation on a scale and at a speed that is unprecedented anywhere. Read more…
Author: Andrew Kennedy, ANU
If China’s rise is one of the most important stories of this century, China’s growing appetite for energy is one of its most striking subplots.
China’s energy consumption more than doubled between 2000 and 2009, and the country is now the world’s top energy consumer. Read more…
Author: Christopher Findlay, University of Adelaide
Commentators on these pages have been pondering the implications of the Fukushima explosion on Japan’s energy policy and its strategy for international purchases.
Samuels suggests an extensive re-examination of energy policy in Japan and a possible shift toward renewable energy. Read more…
Author: Frank Jotzo, ANU
Indonesia is among the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, and it has committed to cut its carbon footprint.
Can Indonesia achieve its goals, what is its role in the region, and how could developed countries assist? Read more…
Author: Tetsuya Endo, JIIA
In the wake of the Fukushima accident, a growing push for denuclearisation is playing out in Japan.
Under pressure from this movement, Japan’s nuclear power industry faces an immediate crisis. Read more…
Author: M Govinda Rao, NIPFP, New Delhi
In a recent public lecture at the India Policy Forum, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia underlined the new challenges of managing water, energy, urbanisation and environment as critical to accelerate growth, arguing it must fulfil a more substantial part of the 12th Plan.
On the energy sector, Ahluwalia stated that an increase in sustainable energy supply would increase the cost of energy and India can contain emissions from energy supply only when it reduces energy intensity. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, EAF
A year or so ago nuclear energy was seen in Japan as the way forward to securing a clean energy future, with a government plan to boost nuclear power to 50 per cent of the total from its pre-Fukushima share of just over 30 per cent by 2030.
Since the Tohoku earthquake and the partial meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO’s) Fukushima plant, there has been a profound reversal of sentiment on nuclear power in Japan. Read more…
Author: Richard Samuels, MIT
Energy policy in Japan seems set to face sweeping institutional reforms as a result of the 11 March disasters.
It is one of the very few areas where Japanese Prime Minister Kan and public opinion are fully aligned. The Japanese public has been treated to a torrent of stories about the villainy of TEPCO and its sibling utility companies. Read more…
Author: Fitrian Ardiansyah, ANU
Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest energy producer and consumer.
Its government energy policies are fostering reliance on dirty and subsidised fossil fuels and little progress has been made in increasing renewable energy usage. Read more…
Author: Sheila A Smith, CFR
The Kan cabinet is facing a defining moment in Japan’s postwar nuclear debate.
With the bulk of nuclear reactors now offline, the country is holding its breath over how Prime Minister Naoto Kan will proceed. Read more…
Author: Husien Khamis, NTU
The acrimony between the United States and China is not new in the field of international relations, evident in the political, economic and strategic realms between the two countries.
Allegations are aplenty that China’s rise is a threat to the United States’ energy security, too. Read more…
Author: Wen Bo, Pacific Environment
Unlike previous Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, who had little interest in forming a strong bilateral relationship with Japan and focused on US China relations instead, the current leadership in China acknowledges the heavy interdependence of the two countries.
What happens in Japan has wide ranging effects in China. Read more…
Author: Haruo Shimada, Chiba University of Commerce
In the wake of Japan’s 11 March disaster, a solar energy economic zone should be constructed along the east coast of the Tohoku region.
The damage to the Tohoku region is extensive and profound in so many areas and aspects. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, EAF
The wave of political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa puts the spotlight once more on Asia’s oil dependence and energy security.
The pressure on oil prices and growing anxiety over energy security, until recently, have largely been driven by the surge in demand from emerging economies, notably China and India. Read more…