Ethics and rights protection seen lacking in energy plans

       Asia-Pacific countries are being encouraged to incorporate ethics and human rights protection into their energy policies.
       Experts yesterday said many countries had not yet included these two factors into their energy development plans.
       John Beaton, executive director of Australia's Academy of Social Sciences, told a Unesco forum on ethics and energy technologies held in Bangkok the region faced common challenges in protecting the dignity of people while implementing its energy policies.
       In Australia, Mr Beaton said, politicians did not bother about public opinion when it came to power development projects, including nuclear power plants,as they were obsessed with how to win elections.
       "It's only recently the National Academy Forum, comprising scholars from pure sciences, social sciences, humanities and technological sciences, have come together to debate how to deal with the issue and public opinion," he said.
       Shu-min Huang, director of the In-stitute of Ethnology from Taiwan, said governments did not seem to take adequate heed of, or take the lead in, ensuring the right to information and sharing goals in environmental protection.
       "Ethics and social sciences have yet to be considered an integral part of the methodological conceptualising of energy policy decisions, even in my country," Mr Huang said.
       Darryl Macer, Unesco regional adviser,said the more governments embraced ethics in their energy technology choices,the more villagers could be involved in bottom-up decision making.
       "This empowerment could help people gain energy knowledge and control of their choices," Mr Macer said.
       Thara Buakhamsri, Greenpeace coordinator, agreed that ethics and human rights had yet to become part of policy makers' mindsets.
       "The hyped concern over global warming has become a pretext to promote nuclear power to replace fossilbased fuels without asking what the Thai people want," Mr Thara said."Policy makers have always designed energy plans based on their own convenience."