Meager APEC results

President Roh Moo-hyun, center, in front row, poses for a photo along with 20 other leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Busan (or Pusan, according to the old romanization system). The leaders are wearing Turumagi, a traditional Korean overcoat, of the pastel color they chose themselves, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.

APEC has played a major role in trying to get Asian countries to adopt modern environmental technologies. Resolving problems such as global warming and ozone depletion, air and water pollution is especially critical for the APEC economies.

The APEC Virtual Center for Environmental Technology Exchange (APEC-VC) is a strong and growing force in the Asia-Pacific region working to address these issues. This project helps APEC economies, municipalities, corporations and environment-related institutions share, via the Internet, information on environmental technologies. Much like an "environmental technology exhibition," APEC-VC disseminates a wide range of information related to protecting the earth.

So how did that start? APEC-VC was approved as a formal APEC joint research project at the Osaka APEC meeting in November 1995. In May 1996, Supporting Committee for APEC Virtual Center for Environmental Technology Exchange was established in Japan, and in April 1997 APEC-VC Japan began its full operation.

APEC-VC Japan and APEC-VC Korea have their own websites that reflect the strategies and priorities of both countries.

This year, at the 2005 APEC meeting, Japan pushed for "Energy Security: While oil prices are rising, balancing economic growth and environmental protection is also a major issue facing the Asia Pacific region, together with the energy security efforts." Other achievements include an initiative to combat avian flu.

I also want to mention that the APEC leaders said:

We shared our concern on the impact of high oil prices and agreed to respond to it urgently by addressing the supply and demand of the energy market simultaneously through: cooperative efforts to increase investment, to expand cross-border trade and to accelerate energy technology development, thereby reducing the region’s vulnerability and securing its energy supply; and promotion of energy efficiency and conservation and diversification measures, which would help to reduce the demand of fossil fuels and lower speculative demand in the oil industry.

Reduce the demand of fossile fuels? Good. But, frankly, let's hope they can do a lot better than that...

(To read the documents, go to the official APEC 2005 website and click on "documents".)