At the end of August the APEC Energy Ministers will meet in Sydney. Energy Ministers at their August 1996 meeting to ensure that the energy programs of their respective countries bring benefits to the majority of people and have a minimal detrimental impact on the environment.
Energy is life.
Food and warmth, transport and jobs, standards of living and future prospects, all depend on our common endeavours to provide ecologically and socially sustainable energy services. Current patterns of energy use, particularly those of the industrialised world, are unsustainable. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions are changing the global climate, and causing dangerous and irreversible impacts on human health and natural ecosystems. Low income nations in APEC are particularly vulnerable to projected changes in the global climate. In addition acid rain, mining practices and the use and disposal of nuclear materials have wide-ranging and adverse impacts on human populations, economies and environments.