ClimateWire: Asia's Soaring Energy Demands will Pose Major Economic, Climate, Health Risks -- Report

Asia is moving along a dangerous path that will threaten its energy security, worsen environmental damages and widen the gap between rich and poor unless the region dramatically changes its course of energy use, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report published yesterday. 

Asia's Energy Challenge, a special theme chapter in the ADB's "Asian Development Outlook 2013," highlights the dilemma the region faces in seeking to meet the energy needs of its billions of citizens while restraining its already big appetite for energy.

In 2010, Asia consumed 34 percent of the world's energy, and this figure will rise to be 56 percent by 2035 based on the current growth rate, the report predicts.

That will turn Asia into the world's largest energy consumer within three decades, and if the region merely expands energy access without fundamentally changing the way it consumes, Asia will double its oil consumption, triple its natural gas use and need 81 percent more coal by 2035, according to the report.  MORE