The 7 June to 8 June ministerial meeting in Aomori, some 600 kilometres (370 miles) north of Tokyo, brings together China, India, South Korea, and the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations – the US, the UK, Canada, Japan, Russia, Germany, France and Italy. Together, these nations account for as much as two-thirds of the world's energy needs, with demand increasing by the day even as oil deposits decline. (See: Top oil consumers meet as crude rockets to record $139 a barrel)

Oil prices have doubled over the last year and risen 44 per cent this year alone, piggybacking on sustained demand from developed nations and increasing demand from developing countries like India and China, coupled with supply threats from conflicts in the Middle East.

"As crude oil prices continue to rise abnormally, it will be an important opportunity to discuss how we should cope with the situation with a shared sense of crisis," Japan's industry minister Akira Amari said this week.

Prices have effectively multiplied five times in the last five years, reaching record peaks of $135.14 a barrel in London and $135.09 a barrel in New York on 22 May. Even the Indian government, normally loath to raise prices, has been forced to do so twice this year even as general elections loom ahead.

India figures prominently in these talks with the first meetings scheduled to take place today between the United States and Asia's largest economies of Japan, China, India and South Korea. Together, they consume 50 per cent of the world's energy.

This would be followed by a meet of the G-8 energy ministers on Sunday, with additional consultations including the three other participants – India, China and South Korea – scheduled later in the day.

The main agenda of the meet is energy security and monitoring of energy consumption. The G-8 has already expressed its intentions to pressurize the developing nations to agree to aloow international monitoring of cuts in energy use, something they have hitherto denied citing the requirements of growing economies. China and India have two of the fastest growing economies in the world, expected to clock 10 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively in 2008.

''China and India are key,'' Amari said. ''Without commitments from those two nations, any strategies will be meaningless.''

Moreover, these two have also refused to agree on long-term targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, another point of discontent among the G-8 nations. Citing their refusals to sign the Kyoto Protocol to commit on pollution cuts, the US, the world's biggest energy consumer and polluter by far, has also refused adherence.

However, what the latter fails to realize, or conveniently ignores, is that the US with a comparatively miniscule population as compared to China or India, has been consuming and polluting considerably more for a considerably longer time. Now that its growth has stagnated, so has its energy needs.

But India and China, right now in the growing phase, will obviously require more energy over the years. These matters are also expected to feature prominently in the discussions.
Additionally, on the agenda is an initiative for international cooperation on energy saving and developing clean energy. Japan, Europe and the US have been discussing creating an "International Partnership for Cooperation on Efficient Energy" as a framework for exchanging information on energy-saving practices.

The International Energy Agency today said the world will need to spend $45 trillion on developing clean technologies in order to meet the G-8's target of halving global emissions by 2050. Nabuo Tanaka, the Paris-based agency's executive director, called for ''a global energy technology revolution,'' according to a statement released in Tokyo.

The G-8 ministers will also call on oil exporters to raise production, with oil trading consistently above $120 a barrel. Increasing output is the key to controlling spiraling prices, Korea's Ministry of Knowledge Economy said yesterday in a statement.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produces more than 40 per cent of the world's oil, has no plans to change output before its scheduled meeting in September, Qatar's Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said on 22 May.

''Oil producers said the spikes aren't their problem, but that's not true,'' Japan's Amari said. ''It's a problem for both suppliers and consumers. We need to share a sense of urgency.''