DURING a media roundtable on Thursday hosted by CNBC as part of the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting week, International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol made an attention-grabbing assertion. There is a renewable energy economy rapidly growing around the world, Dr. Birol said, and most developing countries in Asia are quickly being left behind.

The most interesting point Birol made was that the pace of renewable energy development is not necessarily dependent on climate change concerns. 'Forget about climate change,' he said, meaning that based on conventional measures alone, such as cost, efficiency and ease of construction, developing renewable energy sources rather than conventional ones makes the most economic sense. When climate change concerns are taken into account, Asian countries whose energy policies are still too dependent on conventional energy sources such as coal, and are among the most vulnerable to climate change effects, are putting themselves at a disadvantage both economically and environmentally.