The Future of Energy Policy in East Asia: Prospects and Risks for a Sustainable Framework

Abstract

Abstract This article suggests two directions concerning energy policies in East Asia. First, even within the current regional framework, new roles can be reciprocally assumed by China, Korea, and Japan. Second, deeper cooperation with China and Korea should be sought in a more effective management of energy demand, from the sheer streamlining of energy‐related statistical standards to the diffusion of technological innovation, with a central role for the provision of knowledge, expertise, and infrastructure to the East Asian nations from Japan. The evolution of the concept of energy security in East Asia is currently undergoing a historical change marked by both the explosive growth of energy demand in China and the worldwide “shale revolution.” But instead of assuming a rigid idea of security, the article accepts its pluralism and explores what conditions make even divergent conceptions of energy security as viable in the current and possibly future context of East Asia. Indeed, the golden principle of energy security has often been “to improve one's energy self‐sufficiency ratio and not to be dependent from external suppliers.” However, this concept of energy security may not be the most suited one for East Asia. Without a proper management of its rapidly increasing demand, it will become very difficult to improve the self‐sufficiency ratio in energy production for the Chinese economy, and East Asia as a whole. Also, the shale revolution is shaping a new global situation with a profound change of the supply–demand structure. As energy supply cannot be flexibly manipulated, East Asia, the region with the largest energy consumption, must however strive to design and to construct a secure energy supply system in the context of changing patterns of production and consumption, reflecting a global power shift.