Toward Better and Safer Energy Use: Emerging Regional Issues in Far East

There is clearly a recognition that a shift to renewable and clean resources will become more pronounced in the 21st century. Along with this acceptance is the perceived need to form national and regional partnerships among neighbouring countries. The seemingly unavoidable clash between resource supply development and the environment, compounded by politically metastable factors such as territorial dispute and issue of sovereignty, nuclear proliferation and other potentially disturbing forces affecting the energy economy, in combination with global climate change and widespread environmental pollution, all seem to undermine our confidence in our ability to control and remedy their effects. Ironically enough, though, this conjunction of looming catastrophes is finally serving to influence regional government leaders of China, Japan and Korea. In recent years, great strides have been made in regional cooperation within the field of sustainable energy development and deployment.