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Published on October 26, 2007

As oil prices climb, the impact on the poor may presage worse to come, warns the UNDP publication, "Overcoming Vulnerability to Rising Oil Prices: Options for Asia and the Pacific".

"Oil prices have tripled over the last four years. Today the price is approaching US$90 [Bt3,100] per barrel. This has meant that the Asia Pacific has had to pay an additional bill of almost $400 billion for imports compared to the amount spent in 2003," said Hafiz Pasha, UNDP regional director for the Asia-Pacific, at the launch of the report in Bangkok.

"This is 20 times the annual aid flow to the region," he said. "It has become a real issue for an otherwise fast-growing region to absorb this staggeringly large bill."

Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand presented an alternative perspective at the launch. "This time around, the price of oil has gone up so much that we are seeing renewable technologies developing and materialising. These new technologies will be beneficial to everyone," he said.

Interviews conducted for the report among poor rural and urban households in China, India, Indonesia and Laos reveal that rising oil prices are starting to put a brake on human development and in some cases even shifting it into reverse.

The Nation