By Nadine Leavitt Siak
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Every country needs stable and abundant energy supplies for economic development. But how individual countries meet their energy needs has ramifications beyond borders; for example, coal burned in one location releases gases and soot that can create acid rain to fall on neighboring areas. It should come as no surprise, then, that among the most pressing problems plaguing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region are those revolving around energy issues.

APEC members are working to resolve such problems through incentives aimed at both increasing regional energy supplies and promoting the development of more environment friendly energy sources. The linking of these two goals is a particular challenge because power sector development in the region traditionally relies heavily on exploiting fossil fuels. Not only are these energy sources finite, but the preponderance of "dirty" high-sulfur coal and other carbon dioxide-releasing energy sources lead to global warming.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the top four emitters of carbon dioxide in the world in 1999 were the United States, China, Russia and Japan -- and all four are members of APEC. While China is currently the second-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, experts predict that China's emissions will exceed those of the present largest emitter (the United States) by 2020. This is because nearly three-quarters of China's energy comes from coal. Furthermore, as a developing nation, China's energy needs are growing exponentially.

One APEC challenge, then, is to help China find a way to both utilize its coal reserves while still reducing the threat to the global environment. One doubly promising approach focuses on the recovery and utilization of coal mine gas (methane). Not only can better utilization of methane translate in a lesser reliance on "dirty" coal, but unused methane gas emitted into the atmosphere due to coal mining also fuels global warming.

The APEC Coal Mine Gas Project is one attempt to accelerate the recovery of coal mine gas in China. Karl Shultz, an official from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, noted at the opening of the project in 1996 that coal bed methane emission reductions have "immense potential because a project at one mine can have the same benefit on the global environment as removing one hundred thousand cars from the road." While not due for completion until 2003, the APEC Coal Mine Gas Project has already successfully demonstrated the economic feasibility of this cleaner energy source.

The project in China's Liaoning Province is focused on improving the coal mine gas recovery systems in seven mines at Tiefa City and building a pipeline network to allow for the use of coal mine gas in both Tiefa City and nearby Tieling City. Before the project began, only 24,000 households in the area -- at the mine site at Tiefa City -- used coal mine gas for cooking. The total consumption of gas at the time was seven million cubic meters. With the completion of a pipeline network in December 1999, the project is well on its way of the targeted total of 194,000 households in Tiefa City and nearby Tieling City using gas for cooking, with close to 40 million cubic meters of gas expected to be utilized by 2003.

Other APEC clean-energy projects in China have focused on developing renewable sources of energy. For example, a workshop focusing on the use of small wind and solar photovoltaic technologies for rural electrification in China was held in Beijing in 1998 under the auspices of APEC, the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE), and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. One of the objectives of the workshop was to develop a strategy for fostering U.S.-Chinese joint ventures in renewable energy electrification in rural China. As a result of the workshop, six U.S. companies began developing business activities with Chinese companies.

Another solar energy project supported by USDOE and APEC directly provides solar electricity for hundreds of ethnic Tibetan herders and farmers in Lhasa Prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region. This project, the Tibet Solar Electrification Project, was started in 1998 by the Boulder-Lhasa Sister City Project. Major funding and technical support for the project, however, has come from APEC and USDOE.

Tibet's Xizang Plateau is ideal for harnessing the energy of the sun because of its high altitude, thin and clean air, scarcity of clouds, and abundance of sunshine. In 1999, the Tibet Solar Electrification Project installed three small solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in Damshung and Phenpo Lhundrup Counties; two of the three systems were installed on homes, and the third was installed at the Dronkar Village Community Center. An additional 200 solar photovoltaic home systems were installed in the area the following year.

According to Dr. Bill Warnock, president of the Boulder-Lhasa Sister City Project, the Tibetans in the area relied on candles and kerosene lanterns to light their homes before the project began. "Before the PV lighting, they would cough up kerosene soot and fumes each morning," he says. The utilization of photovoltaic energy has changed all this -- and when Warnock spoke with some of the homeowners in July 2000, they told him that the fundamental improvement in indoor air quality is "a dream come true."

Warnock says the project has improved the overall quality of life for the Tibetans in other -- somewhat unexpected -- ways. "Older people avoid tripping over unlighted objects; children have more study time; families enjoy their evening and morning meals more with adequate lighting," he says, "and families spend more time cleaning their homes."

All of this illustrates the fact that APEC members are taking an enlightened approach to economic development, realizing that promoting rapid economic growth at the expense of a healthy environment cannot improve the quality of life of their citizens. Supporting more environmentally sustainable energy development as well as 'greening' traditional energy supplies not only makes economic sense, but makes for better regional -- even global -- neighbors.