ABARE executive director Brian Fisher said the benefits of these technologies would accumulate in economies where economic output and energy demand were expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. These economies had the greatest potential to develop efficient energy sectors by introducing new technologies as they become available.

 

Fisher said benefits included slower growth in energy consumption and emissions for greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

 

The ABARE report analysed the growth of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies under alternative scenarios of technology development and adoption in the electricity and steel industries.

 

Technologies include advanced coal gasification and combined cycle gas-fired electricity plants, which are being developed as part of the US Vision 21 program, and casting and single vessel smelt reduction processes in the steel industry.

 

“The extent to which this potential can be realised will depend on two key factors: research to develop more advanced technologies, and the appropriate institutional settings within each economy to facilitate the transfer of these technologies through APEC,” Fisher said.

 

“Currently, considerable technology transfer is occurring within APEC and this could be expected to continue if economies provide energy sector investors with clear, consistent legal and regulatory regimes that enable them to make their investments with more certainty.”