Until recently, governments and businesses in Asia have accepted environmental degradation as the residue of rapid economic development. But now, more and more countries consider it bad business to hold the environment hostage to economic prosperity.
Economic growth in Asia has often been called the 'awakening of the tiger'. But if the tiger consumes everything in its path, the shadow it casts will not be very long. In this light, some Asian countries have begun to take the 'soft path' to development by opting for energy conversation in support of environmental considerations.
It's estimated that 45% of the world's energy resources are used to operate commercial buildings. In Asia, buildings consume more than 25% of all the electricity generated. That's because commercial buildings simply use more power when their occupants need it. And when all of them need it simultaneously, this 'peak demand' plays havoc with the power companies that produce the electricity.
Over the past two decades, Asia has continued to develop power generation to meet peak demand. And yet, on average, Asian countries saw energy use expand 28% faster than economic development between 1973 and 1991. South Korea increased installed capacity by 740% over 30 years, only to find it still wasn't enough.
Since then, a practice known as demand side management (dsm), which involves decreasing energy use rather than continuing to increase generation, has become the path that many Asian countries are choosing for sustainable economic growth.
According to the latest World Bank estimates, Asia's economies need an estimated US$1.2 trillion to US$1.5 trillion worth of infrastructure up to 2004, including electric power plants. Megaprojects such as the Bakun Dam in Sarawak, East Malaysia, will provide another 2,400 megawatts of power to peninsular Malaysia at a cost of around US$5.4 billion, helping to satisfy Southeast Asia's appetite for electricity.
Nearly all Asian countries describe equally dramatic power needs. This year, Thailand reported a total generating capacity of 13,941 megawatts, perilously close to the peak demand of 11,990 megawatts. Countries across Asia all need more power to sustain economic growth, and yet by increasing the amount of power generated, the environment is put at risk, threatening the very economic growth that necessitated the increase in power in the first place.
With the overall cost of producing electricity in the region calculated at between US$1.5 million and US$2 million per megawatt, the implementation of energy efficiency programmes has already proven to be far less expensive. In 1993, the Thai government entrusted the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and its power distributors with making Thailand's dsm programme work.
A subcommittee chaired by the prime minister's National Energy Policy Council (NEPC) coordinates the programme through the National Energy Policy Office (NEPO) and the Department of Energy Development and Promotion (DEDP). Because of its potential to reduce environmental damage, the Thai dsm programme gained its initial capital injection of US$189 million from the Global Environment Facility and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund of Japan.
Thailand's dsm programme targets are clear: reduce future peak demand by 238 megawatts over a five-year period, reduce overall energy consumption by 1,427 gigawatt hours per year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions - and do it all without decreasing customer satisfaction.
Acting on energy conservation
In January this year, Thailand's Energy Conservation Promotion Act became effective for commercial buildings. This initiative, called ENCON, mandates that all buildings in Thailand must begin to conserve energy in compliance with conservation standards. The law affects 950 high-rise buildings; 2,500 industries; 415 government buildings, hospitals, universities and colleges, and every new building under design or construction.
This initiative is funded through a tariff on oil and petrol consumption that has already accumulated some US$500 million to spend on making the programme work. Building owners are required to have an energy manager on staff to track the manner in which energy is used, to report consumption and to plan energy conservation within the facility. The law makes building and factory owners responsible for ensuring compliance.
By the end of the fifth year of the dsm programme, EGAT estimates that the construction of a power plant with 10% of the capacity of the Bakun Dam project will have been avoided - equivalent to 1,427 gigawatt hours. This saving will also avoid an estimated 1.16 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere over this period.
Too often, the environmental impact assessments that precede large power projects do little to properly evaluate the true environmental costs. Originally conceived as a series of six smaller dams, the Bakun Dam was later combined into a single mammoth unit because the smaller, less environmentally-damaging series of dams were seen as too costly an undertaking.
But would they have been? Thailand's dsm programme will spend US$189 million to avoid 238 megawatts of new power generation. Malaysia's dam will cost US$5.4 billion to generate an additional 2,400 megawatts of power, and will also create a lake the size of Singapore, wipe out protected species, forever alter Malaysia's longest waterway, and displace more than 9,000 local inhabitants.
Asia's contribution counts
The Washington-based Worldwatch Institute reports that if the Asian region increases its per capita energy use to even 25% of the current industrialised country level, this would increase world energy use in 2025 by 60% over current levels.
Regional cooperation in reducing emissions due to high energy use has drawn the attention of policy-makers and energy experts to bringing about legislation and programmes that make sense for Asia. The standardisation of energy practices that make sense from a cultural, climatic and technological development standpoint has been the subject of recent conferences.
In November, a regional seminar on energy efficiency standards for commercial buildings co-sponsored by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Thailand's NEPO, the DEDP of Thailand, and the French Agency for Environment and Energy Management (ademe) was held at the un regional conference centre in Bangkok.
Model of French success
Speaking to representatives of 16 countries, Dr Paul Brejon of ademe recounted the success of France's energy conservation programmes. 'We have made improvements in energy efficiency of commercial buildings over the last two years,' he said.
'For new buildings, the average energy use throughout Europe is roughly 60% less than those built before the shocks of the 1974 oil crisis. Those built before 1974 have seen their original efficiencies improved 35% by enhancements and retrofits [design improvements, lighting, air conditioning].'
In Asia, the potential for savings is even greater because the energy efficiency of the region's buildings does not measure up to international standards. Energy efficiency in Asia is about half what would be considered 'best practice' in long-industrialised countries. That means a commercial office building in Bangkok would consume twice the energy of a building of the same size in Paris or New York.
Dr Amnarand Piyasvasti, secretary general of the NEPC of Thailand, reinforced this view at the seminar: 'Through conservation practices, economic savings of as much as 25% are achievable. And if we invest in more efficient equipment [lighting, air conditioning, high-efficiency motors] as much as 60% of our energy can be conserved.' One Bangkok office building previously considered state-of-the-art recently had an energy audit performed. The results: with current technologies there was a savings potential due to lighting alone of nearly 71% off its monthly electricity bill.
Once a country has implemented conservation practices, the next step on the 'soft path' for managing Asia's energy needs is that of 'non-defeatability' - how to ensure that practices being implemented in one country are not undermined by the manufacturing methods of its neighbours.
'The question for Asian countries is not whether we will develop, but rather how responsibly we will choose to develop,' says Piyasvasti. 'The amount of suspended pollutants [in the air] due to energy use has made our cities among the most polluted in the world. Economically and environmentally, we simply cannot afford to do less [than choose responsibility]. This is a regional issue whose success will have global ramifications.'
To illustrate the environmental impact of conservation measures in lighting, experts claim that by replacing just one 75-watt incandescent lamp with one 18-watt electronically ballasted (the method by which the light is switched on) compact fluorescent lamp, 570 kilowatt hours will be conserved over its rated lifetime.
Other Asian countries are taking notes on programmes such as Thailand's. Pho Muangnalad, director of cabinet for science, technology and environment in Laos, joined the seminar in Bangkok so that his country could benefit from the experiences of neighbouring nations whose energy sector growth had preceded Laos' own. Muangnalad agrees with the viewpoint of Piyasvasti and others. 'Our energy conservation programme in Laos is just now being developed. We must institute policies and programmes now that will protect our environment in the future,' he says.
Lowering energy consumption in commercial buildings is just the start of environmental stewardship in Asia. Sustainable development includes the 'soft path' of energy conservation rather than just the hard path of increased power generation such as the Bakun Dam. That soft path begins at the threshold of every building in Asia, and like every other journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step.