East Asia S Demand For Energy Minerals And Food

China Japan and South Korea’s international relations are shaped by the fact that all three countries are significant importers of resources. This book brings together work on specific aspects of the politics of resources for each of these countries, regionally and internationally. There are some similarities in the approaches taken by all these three. For example, their development assistance shares a focus on infrastructure building and reluctance to purposefully influence domestic politics. However, there are also significant differences due in large part to the individual nature of the states as international actors. China has significant domestic supplies of resources while Japan and Korea are net importers. China’s size also marks it out as different, as does its state socialist history and continuing authoritarian state. One of the key issues to understanding contemporary resource politics in Northeast Asia is that Western dominance of the world order is currently declining. In some cases Northeast Asian approaches to resources are seen as being mercantilist. In other cases Northeast Asian powers are seen as replacing Western powers in exploiting resource-rich developing countries. This book gives readers an informed view of this very important issue in contemporary international relations. This bookw as published as a special issue of Asian Studies Review.

In this book, leading experts from seven countries-- Japan, Russia, China, the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, and Malaysia-- assess security concerns over East Asian energy imports, particularly from the Middle East.

The Minerals Yearbook is an annual publication that reviews the mineral and material industries of the United States and foreign countries. The Yearbook contains statistical data on materials and minerals and includes information on economic and technical trends and development. The Minerals Yearbook includes chapters on approximately 90 commodities and over 175 countries. This volume of the Minerals Yearbook provides an annual review of mineral production and trade and of mineral-related government and industry developments in more than 175 foreign countries. Each report includes sections on government policies and programs, environmental issues, trade and production data, industry structure and ownership, commodity sector developments, infrastructure, and a summary outlook.

Agricultural innovation has played a critical role in the economic transformation of developing East Asian countries over the past half century. The Green Revolution—in the form of modern seed varieties, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and modern machinery—has contributed to increased crop yields and farm incomes, and decreased poverty across the region. Although policy makers’ traditional focus on expanding and intensifying agricultural production has brought many benefits, the focus on productivity has come at a rising cost. The environmental sustainability of agricultural production is increasingly under threat. Moreover, as countries in the region have become more urbanized and demand for processed foods has risen, inadequate food safety systems and related food safety hazards have created a new form of food insecurity. As detailed in Agricultural Innovation in Developing East Asia: Productivity, Safety, and Sustainability, a new generation of innovation in agriculture has the potential to address the challenges of productivity, sustainability, and food safety to deliver a “triple win.†? To make the most of this promising wave of agricultural innovations, policy makers in the region will need to act to strengthen countries’ agricultural innovation systems. This effort will require a cross-cutting approach, including policy and institutional reforms, improved governance of countries’ agri-food systems, and efforts to build farmers’ and firms’ capacities to adopt new technologies and to innovate.

This report attempts to identify policy, social, infrastructure, and technology issues that must be addressed to meet the future energy needs of members of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Asia and the Pacific. Two cases of the projected energy demand and supply up to 2035 for ADB members in Asia and the Pacific are presented---a business-as-usual case, which reflects the impact of existing policies and current technology levels on future energy demand and energy choice and which assumes that current trends in the development of new and renewable energy sources will continue into the future; and an alternative case that considers the potential for energy savings on both the demand and supply sides through the deployment of advanced and low-carbon technologies to increase energy security in the region. For both outlook cases, carbon dioxide emissions generated and the investments required on the supply and demand sides were estimated.