Energy, Environment and the Economy: Asian Perspectives (review)

464 China Review International: Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall 1997 "a way." Zhuangzi would then be making the pluralist point that any way of acting would constitute a dao, or way. 7.Ding"f may be an indication of low rank rather than a proper name. 8.Perhaps we should be skeptical even of this: elsewhere skill is apparently described as both a completion and an injury (5/2/43). 9.Graham, Chuang-tzu: The Inner Chapters, p. 50. 10.Chad Hansen, "A Tao of Tao in Chuang-Tzu," in Experimental Essays on Chuang-tzu, ed. Victor Mair (Honolulu: Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, University ofHawaii, 1983), p. 47. 11.Ivanhoe suggests that attributing a belief in a benign human nature inserts Zhuangzi into the philosophical debates of his time—but attributing to one a presupposition that one doesn't make explicit, much less defend, hardly inserts one into any debates. Paul R. Kleindorfer, Howard C. Kunreuther, and David S. Hong, editors. Energy, Environment and the Economy: Asian Perspectives. New Horizons in Environmental Economics. Cheltenham, England, and Brookfield, Vermont : Edward Elgar, 1996. xiv, 292 pp. Hardcover $69.95, 1SBN 1-85898-391-6. Energy, Environment and the Economy: Asian Perspectives is a collection of papers presented in Taipei in 1994 at a conference of the same title jointly organized by the Wharton Center for Risk Management and Decision Process and the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. The contributors include specialists from Australia , Austria, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States. The volume is part of the publisher's impressive New Horizons in Environmental Economics series published under the distinguished general editorship of Professor Wallace E. Oates. The contributors address the critical issue of integrating energy production and consumption and economic development with environmental protection. This issue is nowhere more important than in Asia, home to many of the world's most dynamic economies and the majority of the world's population. Rapid increases in standards of living have lifted many out of poverty, even while minimizing income inequalities in cases like Taiwan. Nevertheless, many regimes in Asia have been ill-prepared to cope with the environmental consequences of eco-© 1997 bv Universitv nomic development, resulting in increased pollution loads, haphazard project ofHawai'i Pressplanning and facility siting, and in some instances local political conflict. Although these problems primarily affect Asians, the rising role ofAsia and the Pacific Rim in the global economy and with respect to global commons issues such Reviews 465 as climate change raises the importance ofthese issues to a global plane. Foreign investors are direcdy affected by die resolution of such issues. There are two types ofessays in this volume. Several chapters are applied theoretical analyses ofthe planning process at the national, sectoral, and/or project levels. Mohar P. C. Munasinghe ofthe World Bank begins with the recognition that energy consumption in developing countries must rise and that electricity usage is an environmentally benign form of energy consumption. Munasinghe thus focuses on ways to increase energy efficiency by reducing transmission and distribution losses, raising power tariffs, and implementing structural reform to curtail the role of government electricity boards in favor ofprivate power producers under BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) and other structures. Citing a Sri Lankan case study, Munasinghe argues that sustained energy development can be obtained better through a multi-criteria, multilevel analysis in which environmental and social criteria are incorporated not just at the project level, but also at the regional and planning levels. Munasinghe recognizes that consumers tend to oppose higher tariffs, suggesting the efficacy of government policies that do not require public consent or which can win public support for higher tariffs. Three chapters, by Andrew Chisholm et al., Kenji Yamaji and Taishi Sugiyama, and Chitru S. Fernando et al., analyze the efficiencies to be gained through tradable emission permits as a form ofjoint implementation under the authority of the Framework Convention on Climate Change. Specifically, greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced more efficientiy in developing countries than in industrialized countries where energy usage already is more efficient. Because per capita energy consumption in developing countries is much lower, however, the authors generally posit that equity would require...