ASrIA - Regional Initiatives

In the Asia Pacific Region there is relatively little activity on climate change in comparison with the growing European carbon market and relatively little local expertise. Not surprisingly, most of the activity in the region would appear to be focused on the energy sector and on CDM projects. Some Asia focused initiatives are provided in the pages below.

Asia Carbon Group and the Asian Carbon Exchange
http://www.asiacarbon.com/aboutus.htm

The primary objective of the Asia Carbon Group is to mitigate global climate change and initiate sustainable development through the application of the Kyoto Protocol financial mechanisms in particular the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and Joint Implementation (JI) and finally, Emissions Trading. In Addition to carbon financing, the Group is in the process of establishing a trading platform - the Asia Carbon Exchange and also the Asia Carbon Fund for the purposes of investing into sustainable development projects globally. It is further planning to launch an exchange in Japan that will enable utilities to get better access to carbon reduction projects.

Founding partners such as Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, and the United States have agreed to work together and with private sector partners to meet goals for energy security, national air pollution reduction, and climate change in ways that promote sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. The Partnership will focus on expanding investment and trade in cleaner energy technologies, goods and services in key market sectors. The Partners have approved eight public-private sector task forces covering: (1) cleaner use of fossil energy; (2) renewable energy and distributed generation; (3) power generation and transmission; (4) steel; (5) aluminum; (6) cement; (7) coal mining; and (8) buildings and appliances.

ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE)
http://www.aseanenergy.org/index.html

ACE is an intergovernmental organization established by Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. Core funding is provided by an Energy Endowment Fund established from equal contributions of the ten member countries and managed by a private fund manager. The Centre is envisioned to be a catalyst for the economic growth and development of the ASEAN region by initiating, coordinating and facilitating regional as well as joint and collective activities on energy. The Centre aims to accelerate the integration of energy strategies within ASEAN by providing relevant information state-of-the-art technology and expertise to ensure that over the long term, necessary energy development policies and programmes are in harmony with the economic growth and the environmental sustainability of the region.

Since its establishment, ACE has been instrumental in preparing the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation 1999-2004, a plan that is implemented by ASEAN's specialist organizations in the field of energy including the Forum of Heads of ASEAN Power Utilities/Authorities (HAPUA), the ASEAN Council on Petroleum (ASCOPE), the ASEAN Forum on Coal (AFOC), the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Sub-sector Network (EE&C-SSN) and the New and Renewable Sources of Energy Subsector Network (NRSE-SSN).

Civic Exchange
http://www.civic-exchange.org/

Civic Exchange is an independent Hong Kong-based public policy think tank. Its mission is to:

(1) Promote civic education amongst members of the community, to conduct research and publicise the results so as to provide objective and balanced information to the public concerning economic, social and environmental issues; and

(2) Undertake research on development of economic, social and political policies and practices to help shape the breadth and depth of public policy debate and so to provide well-founded and reasoned argument on the issues identified above.

Civic exchange is currently researching the impact of climate change on Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong - including the predicted sea level rises and other possible impacts. It further plans to accumulate data that will contribute to developing a strategy to manage climate change risk in the greater Pearl River Delta.

EC-ASEAN Energy Facility
http://www.aseanenergy.org/eaef

The EC-ASEAN Energy Facility, a co-operation programme between the European Communities (EC) and the Association of Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN). Its focus is:

It has recently commissioned a study on the design and facilitation of the establishment of an ASEAN Carbon Equity Fund.

TropBio Carbon Exchange, Malaysia
http://www.tropbio.com.my/tro_carbon/carbon_abt.htm

TropBio Carbon Exchange Sdn Bhd (TBCx) has acquired the marketing rights to market the Carbon Sequestration potential to the international market from several forest concessionaires in Malaysia and abroad. TBCx can offer over one million hectares of forestlands in Malaysia and in other countries. Currently, TBCx has a number of afforestation and reforestation projects in the pipeline and with expertise from the TropBio Group, TBCx can provide consultancy services in Carbon offset and other forestry related fields.