Asia
ORNL’s experience includes major activities in India, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Korea. For instance, Laboratory staff have been involved in field projects in India for more than 30 years; ORNL’s Milton Russell has been the principal external advisor to China’s equivalent of our EPA; and for many years ORNL coordinated US leadership of APEC’s energy efficiency committee from a base at the East-West Center. Examples of projects include refrigerator efficiency improvement in India, biomass energy development in China, power sector restructuring in Indonesia, and potentials for reducing highway vehicle emissions in India’s cities.
In the past decade, ORNL has been especially closely linked with energy and environmental issues in India, including climate change impacts and responses. In 2001-2003, the Laboratory collaborated with the Cochin University of Science and Technology on a pioneering assessment of vulnerabilities to possible impacts of climate change in the city of Cochin in the state of Kerala, along with strategies for reducing vulnerabilities. In 2008 and 2009, ORNL has collaborated with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in projecting possible impacts on Northern Indian of relatively severe climate change.
