<b>Regional Energy Officials Tackle Climate Change</b>

"Keeping the Earth hospitable to civilization requires dramatic cuts in
fossil fuel combustion and a worldwide transition to clean energy,
Without making energy production and consumption work for common goals, we can but dream of sustainable development."

Kim Hak-Su, UN ESCAP's Executive Secretary, said in connection with the five days proposed workshop,where some 50 national coordinators for climate change,senior officials from renewable energy and energy efficiency agencies as well as climate change experts are expected to attend the five-day meeting .

The 15 participating countries include Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam.

Greenhouse gas emissions are closely linked to the core sustainable
development issues on the agenda of the Johannesburg Summit 2002 to be held in South Africa next month. According to the United Nations, carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels accounts for 75 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. Twenty percent of existing world demand for oil and gas is now in Asia, with more than 50 per cent of the growth in demand each year coming from the region.

The training workshop is part of a regional project for the Promotion of
Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Abatement (PREGA) launched in April 2001 in Manila, Philippines. The three-year PREGA project, co-financed by the Netherlands and ADB on a grant basis, promotes investments in technologies that will increase the poor's access to energy services as well as help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The workshop will also provide a forum for the participants to meet and share their experience on climate change and energy-related issues.