Energy and the environment in Asia, much more than a regional challenge

For another year, the CIDOB Foundation's Asia Programme has collaborated with the Consorci Universitat Internacional Menéndez Pelayo a Barcelona (CUIMPB) – Centre Ernest Lluch to jointly organise a series of summer courses on the subject of Asia, and which were also supported by Casa Asia. At this year's courses, participants analysed the global repercussions of the economic growth of Asia's emerging economies on the areas of energy and the environment. The event, which featured participation by leading Spanish and international experts, highlighted the difficulty involved in managing two of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. 

In the case of energy, the experts criticised the lack of political imagination that has historically characterised the management of energy needs right up to the present day, a time in which future prospects demand urgent responses, given that the current energy model is no longer sustainable. After paying particular attention to China – both to its external energy policy and to its internal determining factors – the speakers noted that in countries such as Spain, the magnitude of the energy challenge far outweighs the still insufficient attention that is given to the subject by the field of research. Participants claimed that there was a serious lack of experts on the subject, and without whom it will be even more difficult to achieve a balance between the need to guarantee supply, economic efficiency and respect for the environment. 

However, it was also pointed out that Spain has the possibility of becoming an international point of reference in terms of renewable energies if it succeeds in maintaining and broadening the stances that it has taken. With respect to the destruction of the natural environment, the speakers analysed the social dimension of the phenomenon, which is linked to urban development and the industrial revolution, producing risks that subsequently spread to wide sectors of society. The environment has gone from being an ‘object’ to be conserved to become a possible source of danger to human life in regions such as Central Asia, the environmental challenges of which were analysed in particular detail. The courses offered the opportunity to explore the links between the dimensions of security and of the environment, which could be an element of conflict, but also one of cooperation. It was shown that – in the multilateral sphere – the environment has been a meeting point for many initiatives.

Nevertheless, the fragmented profusion of international conventions and organisations suggests that much remains to be done in order to improve the global governance of this challenge. Viewed as a whole, and within a political context marked by the pre-eminence of States, challenges such as those of energy and the environment revealed the need to harmonise interests and to improve the political decision-making process on all levels, in such a way that citizens' needs can be met on a global scale.