At the recent 10th ASCOPE Conference and Exhibition held in Vietnam with the theme "Innovation and cooperation - Towards the future", a report from the International Economic Agency showed that the Southeast Asia region is still on a strong growth path, with 2.5 times more energy demand than in 1990.
Therefore, policymakers are currently solving the problem by increasing the amount of coal used. increased more, although oil and natural gas are still the dominant fuel sources, coal use continues to increase sharply.
Fossil energy causes heavy damage to the environment and life
By the end of 2012, the proportion of electricity produced by coal reached 75% of construction capacity, with projects mostly deployed in Vietnam and Indonesia, two countries with abundant coal reserves in the region. The International Energy Agency also predicts that coal-fired electricity capacity in the region will double to 80GW by 2020 and continue to increase to 160GW by 2035.
However, heavy use of coal can be seriously harmful to the environment and people. The content of sulfur oxides, nitrogen, oxides, fine particles and heavy metals released when burning coal will cause smog, acid rain and even premature death. According to the World Health Organization, fine particles are responsible for about 8% of deaths from lung cancer, 5% of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 3% of deaths from respiratory infections worldwide. Also according to a World Bank report released in 2013, every year India spends about 80 billion USD on pollution and environmental degradation problems and this is a lesson for countries in the Southeast Asian region to change energy sources.
At the conference, experts said that the use of coal may not completely reflect human energy needs in the future. Through Shell's recent survey results of 3,400 people in six countries in the Asia Pacific region, including Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Australia, 7 out of 10 people believe that reducing CO2 is very important and the majority of them say that the Government plays a key role in shaping a cleaner energy future.
For a cleaner Asia
Natural gas still plays a decisive role in energy clean energy future - an area with the potential to develop abundant natural gas resources that are easy to use and affordable in the long term. It is predicted that this area can use natural energy sources within 250 years at the current consumption level. Figures show that at the end of 2012 the whole region had 7.5 trillion cubic meters of identified gas reserves, accounting for 3.5% of total global reserves. Mr. Duncan Van Bergen - General Director of Market Development of Global Gas and LNG, a global Shell business brand headquartered in Asia, said: "Shell believes that gas is the clean fuel solution in the future and Asia will continue to be the world's growth engine. By 2020, Shell predicts electricity consumption will increase by about 25 - 35% compared to 2012."
Natural gas emits CO2 into the environment can be accepted in terms of sulfur oxides, nitrogen, oxides, fine particles and heavy metals only 1/10 compared to plants using coal. The cost of building power plants using natural gas is significantly lower than building new power plants using other energy sources, and converting from coal to natural gas is also the most time- and cost-saving option in reducing CO2 emissions.
A Shell survey conducted in Vietnam in June 2013 also found that eight out of ten Vietnamese respondents selected solar energy as a future energy source, with the article reporting the highest preference at 72%, followed by hydropower at 58% and wind energy at 47%. Biofuels were also considered beneficial for the environment and a way to reduce CO2 emissions. Vietnamese respondents showed growing concern about energy, with high energy prices, water shortages and food shortages among the pressing issues that could have the greatest future impact on Vietnam.
The problem is that the Government's role needs to be to implement a few urgent policies, in which it is necessary to strongly implement regulations on combustion air pollution for power plants, and at the same time commit to eliminating subsidies that affect the energy market. Reforming fossil fuel subsidies remains a challenging issue for Southeast Asia. These subsidies amounted to 51 billion USD in 2012, equivalent to Macau's GDP. Removing these funding sources could encourage investment in energy infrastructure and promote energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy deployment, said Maaarten Wetselaar, executive vice president of Shell's Integrated Gas business. (Business Forum December 12, international section, author Minh Huong)