Asia Pacific ministers take on sustainability challenges

Senior officials with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) are meeting in San Francisco this week to discuss a variety of sustainability challenges facing their region, including energy, transport, anticorruption measures and women in the economy.

A conference on transportation and energy is set for the gathering today, to be hosted by US Energy Secretary Steven Chu and US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The discussion will center on how to move the 21 APEC economies to an energy-efficient, sustainable, low-carbon transport future.

Throughout the two-week-long meeting in San Francisco, ministers from across the Asia Pacific region will meet with some 3,000 public- and private-sector delegates to review lessons learned and share ideas for improving the economy and preserving the environment.

One key topic of discussion will be smart-grid technologies, and the variety of energy sources and distribution points they can manage. Developing common standards are seen as a priority for speeding up deployment and improving economies of scale.

“The adoption of renewable energy technologies and the deployment of AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) and smart grids are potential solutions for energy crises and environmental protection,” Jerry Ou, director-general of Chinese Taipei’s Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Energy Bureau, said during the opening of the APEC workshop.

San Jose-based smart-grid company Echelon is one of the members of the host committee for the APEC gathering.

“We look forward to sharing what Echelon, our customers and our partners have learned from building the smart grid throughout Europe and the US with over 2.7 billion consumers in large, developing economies such as China, Thailand, Malaysia and other APEC countries,” said Ron Sege, Echelon’s president and CEO.