Indonesia: Biggest energy waster

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20050720164948&irec=2

Indonesia: Biggest energy waster

JAKARTA (Antara): Indonesia has been classified as one of the world's biggest wasters of energy, with low gross domestic product and growth rates despite the huge amount of resources it consumed, an official says.

M.A.M. Oktaufik, head of the energy efficiency division at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, said Indonesia's energy elasticity, a ratio of energy consumption growth and economic growth, reached 1.84 in 2004, compared toonly 1.69 in Malaysia, 1.16 in Thailand, 0.73 in Singapore, 0.26 in the United States, 0.17 in Canada and 0.10 in Japan.

"It is proven that industrialized countries which are willing to apply energy conservation technologies can save large quantities of energy," Oktaufik said.

On the world energy intensity index, which measures energy consumption against GDP, Indonesia got a score of 400, with Thailand at 350, less than 300 in the United States, and only 100 in Japan, he said.

The higher the numbers, the more inefficient the energy consumption in a country was, Oktaufik said. (**)