The 30th ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Energy (SOME) took place on
July 2 in Cambodia, to discuss energy security within the bloc as
well as green energy issues.
On speaking at the
opening ceremony, Cambodia ’s Secretary of State for the Ministry of
Industry, Mines and Energy, Chea Sieng Hong, said that the meeting was
to ensure that by the time ASEAN becomes a single community in 2015, all
member countries will be taking a joint approach to green energy issues
and pooling their resources together.
Hong said
that the meeting focused on energy security in the ASEAN region and
developing green energies because of cost and climate change.
The meeting followed up the organisation’s plan of action for energy
cooperation during the period 2010-2015, which focuses on an ASEAN power
grid; a trans-ASEAN gas pipeline; clean coal technologies; new and
renewable energies; energy efficiency and conservation and nuclear
power, he said.
Hong also emphasised that these are
just some of the measures that will ensure energy security and
sustainability in the ASEAN region.
To reach these
goals, the bloc needs to step up coordination and cooperation between
its members and its partners, he said.
Several
meetings were also held between senior ASEAN energy officials and the
bloc’s dialogue’s partners including China, Japan, the Republic of
Korea, Australia, India, New Zealand, Russia, the United
States and the European Union.
The outcome of the
30th ‘SOME’ will be submitted to the ASEAN Ministers Meeting on Energy,
to be held in September in Phnom Penh.-VNA