Over the past years, soaring prices for oil and other commodities have revealed the fragility of the world economy dependent on the growing consumption of oil and natural resources. Attaining a new path of economic development based on less consumption of natural resources becomes a prerequisite for sustaining economic growth given the irreversibility of the trend. The new path in turn implies positive correlations between economic growth and socioeconomic investment in improving environmental sustainability.
This condition is not an exception for North-East Asia since three member countries of NEASPEC, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, are in top ten oil importers in the world, sharing 19.3% of the world’s imported crude oil in 2003. China’s booming economy was also a significant factor in the upsurge of oil prices while political turmoil in oil producing countries and extreme weather events such as hurricane Katrina played pivotal roles. Furthermore, the China Sustainable Development Strategy Report 2006 shows that the use of natural resources per GDP in China is 1.9 times higher than the world average and China’s performance in the context of Resource-Saving Society is ranked at 54th among 59 countries while Russia and Republic of Korea are ranked at 44th and 55th, respectively.
Thus, a crucial challenge for North-East Asia is to transcend old models of development and forge a new path of development which could be sustained with efficient and less consumption of natural resources and less production of environmental pollution. In fact, North-East Asian countries proactively pursue national strategies under the concept of Resource-Saving Society and Sound Material-Cycle Society, which are closely in line with the recommended new path of development, called Green Growth.

The new initiative of NEASPEC on eco-efficiency is based on the consideration of appropriate responses to the need for exploring Green Growth and for promoting synergies among existing national strategies. In addition, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) defines increasing eco-efficiency as a key means to change unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. JPOI particularly calls upon countries to increase eco-efficiency through providing incentives for investment in eco-efficiency, and collecting and disseminating relevant information.

In this regard, the 10th Senior Officials Meeting of NEASPEC in 2004 discussed environmental pressures resulting from the current trend of economic growth in North-East Asia. The meeting also reviewed new approaches to economic growth and policy tools for enhancing eco-efficiency leading to the improvement of environmental sustainability. Based on the discussion, the meeting recommended the Secretariat to develop a detailed paper on emerging issues related to environmentally sustainable economic growth in North-East Asia, and present it at the 11th SOM in order to formulate future activities of NEASPEC.

On the basis of the decision, the Secretariat prepared a paper focusing on eco-efficiency in North-East Asia and presented it at the 11th SOM in October 2005, which also included the presentation of country reports on eco-efficiency. The Secretariat paper particularly addressed the following issues:

	Growing environmental and economic burdens arising from the sustained increase of energy consumption to support rapid economic growth;
	The high level of economy-wide energy intensity in most NEASPEC countries, and the growing unsustainable consumption patterns which bring about increasing energy intensity in end-use sectors, i.e., transportation and residential building, in particular;
	The significant impact of pollutions and ecological degradation on human health and economy;
	The need for shifting the conventional economic growth towards Green Growth and adopting policies and measures for improving eco-efficiency, which would leads to the reduction of material intensity, energy intensity, dispersion of toxic substances, etc. and in turn the achievement of environmental sustainability; and
	Potential activities of NEASPEC on eco-efficiency, which includes identifying policy options and challenges for eco-efficiency; conducting joint research on eco-efficiency indicators; making guidelines for sustainable consumption and production; disseminating information; formulating action plans for all stakeholders, etc.

Country reports also elaborated the need for undertaking actions to improve eco-efficiency and relevant national policies including the concepts of Resource-Saving Society of China and Sound Material-Cycle Society of Japan.

Through presentations and discussions, the Meeting recognized the significance of improving eco-efficiency to tackle adverse environmental impacts resulting from the current economic development in the subregion and the proactive national initiative of NEASPEC countries in relations to eco-efficiency. In this connection, the Meeting decided to organize the Second Expert Group Meeting for in-depth discussion on Eco-Efficiency in North-East Asia.

The Second EGM was held in collaboration with China Standard Certification Center on 25-26 May 2006 in Beijing. Through identifying priority subregional tasks for improving eco-efficiency and feasible implementation mechanisms, the need for joint activities on eco-efficiency was unanimously perceived as a meaningful agenda of NEASPEC to address eco-efficiency issue as well as to facilitate intergovernmental discussions and actions on the sustainable development of North-East Asia. In particular, the Meeting drew the following conclusions.

	Agreed to propose the 12th Senior Officials Meeting of NEASPEC to initiate a subregional action, tentatively titled as “Eco-efficiency Partnership in North-East Asia”.
	Identified potential subregional activities such as the development of strategy report, harmonized EPR (extended producer responsibility) system and eco-labeling, sound material cycle network in NEA, cross-border cooperation on energy efficiency, eco-efficiency indicator, and capacity building programme.
	Suggested to explore creating various forums such as business forum, NGO forum, expert network on eco-efficiency and annual eco-efficiency partnership forum.