technology, energy efficiency and environmental externalities in the ...

PREFACE
Industries have always played a crucial role in the socio-economic development of a country.
They have contributed primarily to increased prosperity, greater employment and livelihood
opportunities. On the other hand, industries are accused of accelerating the consumption of
scarce fossil fuels and of polluting the local, regional, and global environment by releasing
solid, liquid and gaseous pollutants to their surroundings.
Experiences gained worldwide have shown that these impacts of industries on resource use
and the environment can be contained through more efficient production processes and
adoption of cleaner technologies and procedures. Thus, fossil fuel consumption can be cut
down drastically and waste generation can be avoided or minimized to the lowest possible
level. Regulatory regimes introduced in several countries have led the industries to adopt
appropriate measures. Some countries have adopted economic instruments to reflect the true
cost of goods and services by internalizing the environmental costs of their input,
production, use, recycling and disposal.
The improvement of production system through the use of technologies and processes that
utilize resources more efficiently and achieve “more with less” is an important pathway
towards the long-term sustenance of industries. It is in this context that a research project
was undertaken by the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), with the support of the Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The project entitled “Development
of Energy Efficient and Environmentally Sound Industrial Technologies in Asia” was
launched with the specific objective to enhance the synergy among selected Asian
developing countries in their efforts to grasp the mechanism and various aspects related to
the adoption and propagation of energy efficient and environmentally sound technologies.
Three energy intensive and environmentally polluting industrial sub-sectors (cement, iron &
steel, and pulp & paper) and four Asian countries of varying sizes, political systems and
stages of development (China, India, Philippines, Sri Lanka) were selected in the framework
of this study. To enhance in-country capacity building in the subject matter, collaboration
was sought from reputed national institutes who nominated experts to actively participate in
the execution of the project.
The activities undertaken in the first phase of the project were the following:
- Evaluation of the status of technologies in selected energy intensive and
environmentally polluting industries;
- Identification of potential areas for energy conservation and pollution abatement in
these industries;
- Analysis of the technological development of energy intensive and polluting
industries in relation with the national regulatory measures;
- Identification of major barriers to efficiency improvements and pollution
abatement in the industrial sector.
Based on the initial guidelines prepared at AIT under the leadership of Dr. X. Chen,
discussions were held with the experts from the national research institutes (NRIs) of the
four participating countries. The outcomes of these meetings were used as a basis for the
preparation of country reports which were presented at two project workshops held at