This publication provides guidance on how governments and utilities in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) can develop sustainable power development plans based on current international best practices. It outlines how the integration of strategic environmental assessments to an integrated resource planning approach can enable power development plans to explore or better manage renewable energy sources efficiently. It also discusses the benefits and key principles of this approach, with technical guidelines for each of the six GMS countries and tools aimed for use by practitioners in Asia and beyond.

The East–West Economic Corridor (EWEC) was launched in 1998 as a flagship initiative of the Greater Mekong Subregion. EWEC has since achieved many of its infrastructure targets and must now be transformed from a transport corridor into an economic corridor. This report reviews and updates the Pre-Investment Study for EWEC conducted in 2001. It consolidates the interests and concerns of stakeholders into a revised and updated strategy and action plan to provide a vision and framework, improve coordination, and assist in mobilizing resources for EWEC development. Preparation of this revised and updated strategy and action plan for EWEC involved a series of consultations with government officials of EWEC countries and representatives of the private sector, nongovernment organizations, and development partners. These consultations culminated in a regional workshop held on 24 April 2009 in Khon Kaen, Thailand. The revised and updated strategy and action plan for EWEC was endorsed at the 15th GMS Ministerial Conference held in Cha-am, Petchburi Province, Thailand on 17–19 June 2009.

What is the one thing that no one can do without? Water. Where water crosses boundaries – be they economic, legal, political or cultural – the stage is set for disputes between different users trying to safeguard access to a vital resource, while protecting the natural environment. Without strategies to anticipate, address, and mediate between competing users, intractable water conflicts are likely to become more frequent, more intense, and more disruptive around the world. In this book, Delli Priscoli and Wolf investigate the dynamics of water conflict and conflict resolution, from the local to the international. They explore the inexorable links between three facets of conflict management and transformation: Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), public participation, and institutional capacity. This practical guide will be invaluable to water management professionals, as well as to researchers and students in engineering, economics, geography, geology, and political science who are involved in any aspects of water management.

In 1934, Lewis Mumford critiqued the industrial energy system as a key source of authoritarian economic and political tendencies in modern life. Recent debate continues to engage issues of energy authoritarianism, focusing on the contest between energy-driven globalization (the spread of energy deregulation and the simultaneous consolidation of the oil, coal, and gas industries) and the so-called "sustainable energy" strategy that celebrates the local and community scale characteristics of renewable energy. Including theoretical inquiries and case studies by distinguished writers, Transforming Power is divided into three parts: Energy, Environment, and Society; The Politics of Conventional Energy; and The Politics of Sustainable Energy. It interrogates current contemporary energy assumptions, exploring the reflexive relationship between energy, environment, and society, and examining energy as a social project. Some of these have promised a prosperous future founded upon technological advances that further modernize the modern energy system, such as "inherently safe" nuclear power, environmentally friendly coal gasification, and the advent of a wealthier, cleaner world powered by fuel cells; and the "green technologies," said by advocates to prefigure a revival of human scale development, local self-determination, and a commitment to ecological balance. br This volume offers a timely engagement of the social issues surrounding energy conflicts and contradictions. It will be of interest to policymakers, energy and environmental experts, sociologists, and historians of technology.

This report was produced under the technical assistance project Promoting Renewable Energy, Clean Fuels, and Energy Efficiency in the Greater Mekong Subregion (TA 7679). It focused on renewable energy developments and potential in five countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS): Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. It assessed the potential of solar, wind, biomass, and biogas as sources of renewable energy. Technical considerations include the degree and intensity of solar irradiation, average wind speeds, backup capacity of grid systems, availability and quality of agricultural land for biofuel crops, and animal manure concentrations for biogas digester systems. Most GMS governments have established plans for reaching these targets and have implemented policy, regulatory, and program measures to boost solar, wind, biomass, and biogas forms of renewable energy. Incentives for private sector investment in renewable energy are increasingly emphasized.