Stories from Asia: Standards and Labeling Successes

Asia’ s rapid economic growth has been accompanied by an even more rapid increase in energy demand. Inefficient appliances and electric equipment are exacerbating the region’ s shortages of electricity, increasing the demand for foreign exchange to finance power plant construction, and causing environmental degradation. A significant portion of electricity demand is attributable to appliances. For refrigerator-owners in the Philippines, at least 25% of the family’s electric bill is devoted to running a refrigerator! Figure 1 shows the projected increases in residential electricity demand by end-use in Thailand.