Policy Forum

Discusses energy and socioeconomic projections for Northeast Asia and their implications for emissions and suggests potential joint US-Japanese policy initiatives to curb acidifying emissions in the region.

APEC: Promise or Peril in the Asia-Pacific – Full Text Jason Hunter Program Officer Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development June 10, 1997 Ecological Economics Bulletin Vol.2 No. 3 1997 I. Introduction This year, as Canada hosts the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, Ministers from the world’s eighteen most dynamic economies will convene […]

Explores APEC’s relationship to environmental degradation within the Asia-Pacific, gives an overview of APEC’s institutional structure and two track agenda, and finally addresses ways APEC can reconcile the often competing agendas found under its purview.

These two essays provide representative views, from the perspective of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), on the possibilities and prospects of replacing the Korean Armistice Agreement with a permanent peace treaty. The authors address issues at the center of recent debates over the terms for beginning this process, and argue forcefully for their positions.

NAPSNet Forum #4 — DPRK on Ending the Armistice NAPSNet Forum #4 — DPRK on Ending the Armistice Northeast Asia Peace and Security Network “DPRK Perspectives on Ending the Korean Armistice” #4 — May 7, 1997 The is intended to provide expert analysis of contemporary peace and security issues in Northeast Asia, and an opportunity […]

As tariffs have been reduced by successive multilateral trade liberalization agreements, subsidies have emerged as a major issue in international trade policy. And as environmental concerns have been linked with trade issues, it has increasingly been recognized that subsidies can have significant environmental implications. In the past year, the issue of subsidies and the environment has been included in the work plans of the World Trade Organization’s Committee on Trade and the Environment, the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development’s Intergovernmental Panel on Forests, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

Presents a conceptual framework for understanding subsidies in the natural resource sector; marshals the evidence that such subsidies harm the environment, focusing on the forest and fisheries sectors as case studies; examines the ways in which natural resource subisidies are being treated in various international fora, including APEC; and proposes ways to integrate the issue into APEC’s work program.

Examines the current state of energy and electric power financing in Northeast Asia, scenario-specific capital constraints, innovative approaches, likely sources of finance for the Sustainable Energy Development strategy, and concerted unilateral or joint US/Japan initiatives which could address the regional financing needs of East Asian energy development, especially with China.

Describes APEC’s work on environmental issues between 1993, when environmental issues moved into the mainstream of APEC, and 1997, when Environment Ministers will approve implementation of a regional “Action Programme.”