Study On Energy Cooperation In East Asia Under Low Carbon Economy

Energy is not only an essential material foundation of the existenceand development of a country but also closely tied to the fate of a nation.In the21stcentury, energy has definitely become an important strategicresource and hot topic in politics, economics and environment protectionarea. Therefore, most countries attach great importance to their energypolicy and actively carry out energy cooperation to secure energysecurity.Being the fastest growing and emerging economy, East Asia has a strongdemand for energy. However, the wide gap between supply and demand, aswell as low-carbon economy and high-carbon energy prompt East Asiannations realize the importance of energy cooperation. With environmentdeterioration and climate change, all the nations implement relativepolicies to strike the balance between economic growth and ecologicalprotection. And therefore, against the background of low-carbon economy,energy cooperation in East Asia has theoretical meaning and practicalvalue.This paper starts with the mention of low economy and the general ideaof energy security. Under the background of low economy, the concept ofenergy security has changed from the traditional definition of‘obtaining stable supply with appropriate price’ to an extensive idea,including energy supply security, energy demand security, energytransport security, energy environment security and etc. This paperhighlights the energy cooperation among ASEAN and China, Japan and ROK,and the necessities and main barriers of energy cooperation. Energycooperation is hindered by the gaps in economy and ideology, blocked by‘Cold War’ mentality, influenced by vicious scramble for energyresource, interfered by US’s presence in Asia-Pacific region. On the other hand, this paper introduces possible solutions to theabovementioned problems, such as forming unified energy policy, settingup East Asia energy cooperation institution, creating energy reserve fund,consolidating energy strategic reserve, developing new energy, promotingtechnology innovation, providing infrastructure and laws, regulationsfor energy cooperation. Finally, with touching on China’s real condition,this paper presents positive advices on meeting energy challenge andpushing forward energy cooperation in East Asia.