AFP

China’s growth model, based on the West’s economic model with its massive appetite for resources and increasing environmental degradation is unsustainable and will have to change, a leading environmentalist said.

Dubbed “NOPEC”, a bill passed by the US Senate Judiciary Committee would allow legal action to be taken against cartels such as OPEC, said Senator Patrick Leahy, one of the bill’s co-sponsors.

Several Asian countries are pushing ahead with their long held objective of establishing a regional oil market for cheaper supplies, despite warnings such an initiative could backfire.

Philippines President Gloria Arroyo ordered most Philippine government offices to go on to four-day working weeks in April and May to conserve energy amid surging crude oil prices, the presidential palace said today.

China, possessing the second-biggest currency reserves in the world, will have no difficulty in paying for strategic stocks of crude oil later this year despite the high cost of energy, analysts said.

China said it intends to set up a special task force to handle energy issues as its top economic planner painted a dire picture of the nation’s desperate power shortages.