Energy sustainability within the Asia-Pacific region was the main discussion topic during a forum held in Tianjin by the APEC Sustainable Energy Center (APSEC) on Nov 3, with more than 100 officials, experts, and entrepreneurs from APEC countries and regions in attendance.

The APEC economic entity is devoted to sustainable energy development in the Asia-Pacific region.

Li Junfeng, director of the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, said China is been carrying the energy transformation in recent years.

The nation had its first negative growth of coal-fired generating capacity and coal consumption in 2014 and in 2015, with renewable energy generating capacity accounting for 24.8 percent of power generation in the country, an increased of 4.8 percent compared to 2012.

The APSEC is one of the eight sub-institutes of the APEC energy group, focusing on improving the energy structure of the Asia-Pacific region and concentrating on advanced energy research in this area.

An Fengquan, deputy director of the National Energy Administration, said APSEC has established two years ago, during which it initiated an APEC sustainable city cooperation network construction and promoted a program on clean coal techniques, which has improved the quality level of energy that has been produced and has provided sustainable economic development in the Asia-Pacific region.

Zhu Li, director of APSEC, stressed that the center intends to further promote its programs on sustainable city and clean coal technology in the next five years. In addition, it aims to collect expert analysis and information data to set up an intelligent Asia-Pacific sustainable energy development network to be ready for possible future energy security problems in the area.