APEC – the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation – was a Bush generated organization. Can the Obama Administration work with them?

We just got a heavily symbols-larded e-mail announcing their March 24-25, 2009 Workshop on Policies to Promote Energy Efficiency in Transport – but we were unable to open their Draft Agenda. Nevertheless, we spotted some IEA related names in the heavily designed cover letter as supposed stars of the event. We doubt that this is an environment fit for the new Washington White House.

Further, the so called “Alliance to Save Energy” was nothing more then a pre-Bush nuclear energy Washington Lobby – are they supposed to lead the new US effort?

In short – what is the US going to do with this organization? Is it worth the effort to restructure it in order to save the names mentioned in the press announcement? Can this be done without a complete revolution of the staff? Is this the platform for a US-China collaboration in the Obama era? We would love to get answers from the organizers so we can post them for our readers. We are for negotiations with anyone, but then some fora may just be a waste of time.

The APEC Workshop on Policies to Promote Energy Efficiency in Transport

On 24 and 25 March 2009, the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) Secretariat in Singapore will host the APEC Workshop on Policies that Promote Energy Efficiency in Transport (WPPEET). Policy makers and experts within the transportation, environment, energy and related fields from the 21 APEC member economies are invited to attend. Please register by 6 March 2009; there is no cost for registration.

The workshop will bring together APEC economy policymakers and international experts to discuss best practices and lessons learned in all APEC economies, with the aim of informing future policy for promoting energy-efficient and sustainable transport throughout the APEC region.   The intended outcomes of the workshop include an expansion of a 2008 survey of APEC transportation policies to incorporate the best practices and case studies discussed during the workshop, and a draft action plan for APEC economies.

The attached draft agenda shows the main topics to be discussed during the workshop, all of which will touch on the themes that will be established by the Plenary panel:

·                 Challenges in Transport and Climate Change (Lee Schipper, Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency).
·                 Addressing Climate Change in the Transport Sector through the Avoid-Shift-Improve approach (Jamie Leather, Asian Development Bank)
·                 Action Plan on Transport and Climate Change for the International Community (Cornie Huizenga, Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) Center)

We hope you will join your peers from a wide range of APEC economies at this timely and important event.     We look forward to your positive response and to seeing you at WPPEET in March! Please contact me at  slarsen at ase.org or at +1 (202) 530-2227 if you have any questions about the workshop.

Thank you,

Sally Larsen
Policy and Research Associate
The Alliance to Save Energy
(202) 530-2227