APEC energy ministers conclude Beijing meeting with wide-ranging outcomes

The 16th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Energy Ministerial Meeting concluded in Beijing on Friday with fruitful outcomes.

Ministers and representatives from APEC member economies, along with heads of international organizations, held candid, in-depth and constructive discussions over a day and a half of discussions.

The meeting issued a joint statement and adopted three specialized documents: the Vision and Proposed Actions on Universal Access to High-Quality Energy in APEC, the APEC Policy Recommendations on the Mutual Enhancement Between AI and Energy in the Asia-Pacific, and the APEC Non-binding Principles for Promoting Energy Security Synergy.

As the APEC 2026 host, China introduced five voluntary contributions addressing technological and practical challenges that member economies face in energy transition and urban development. Delivered through policy reports, technical solutions and capacity-building programs, these contributions are open to all economies, according to the National Energy Administration.

"These five contributions cover power system resilience, zero-carbon city development and clean energy growth, drawing on China's mature technologies and complete industrial chains in ultra-high-voltage transmission, flexible direct current, offshore wind power, shared energy storage and smart microgrids. By compiling and publishing these solutions, we aim to help economies lower the cost of technological exploration and accelerate their transitions in ways suited to local conditions," said Wang Jianbo, deputy director of the National Energy Administration

The APEC Policy Recommendations on the Mutual Enhancement Between AI and Energy marks the organization's first consensus document focused on two-way AI-energy empowerment. It defines both the supporting role of energy systems for computing infrastructure and the value of AI in boosting energy efficiency and resilience.

"Participants agreed to establish a Task Force on the Mutual Enhancement of AI and Energy under the APEC Energy Working Group. This is an important institutional innovation from the meeting, offering a new platform for technical cooperation and policy exchange among APEC economies in this field," said Wang Hongzhi, director of the National Energy Administration.

APEC energy ministers conclude Beijing meeting with wide-ranging outcomes

New Zealand's ruling National-led coalition has secured a parliamentary majority in the general election, preliminary results showed early Sunday, putting Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on course to retain power for a second term.

The Election Commission's tally of all voting places has resulted in 11 "overhang" seats, increasing to 131 the total number of seats in parliament, which normally has 120.

Among the seats, the National Party, ACT New Zealand and New Zealand First collectively secured 67, giving the three-party coalition a narrow majority to continue governing, while the opposition bloc of the Labor Party, the Green Party and the Maori Party garnered 57 in total.

The contest between the National and the Labor, led by former prime minister Chris Hipkins, remained exceptionally close, with each securing over 29 percent, according to preliminary figures.

Addressing supporters in Auckland, Luxon said the election was "too close to call," with the final outcome hinging on special votes to be counted. He acknowledged that negotiations and compromise would be needed to form the next government.

The outcome could still change when 700,000 special votes are counted days later. These include ballots cast by overseas voters and people voting outside their electorates, and are not included in the preliminary results, according to the Electoral Commission, which is scheduled to release the final official results, including special votes, on Nov. 27.

The Green Party has won a record 16 seats in parliament. The centrist Opportunity Party has also made a parliamentary breakthrough, projected to win seven seats, preliminary results showed.

The country has nearly 3.8 million provisionally enrolled voters for the 2026 general election, representing 93.6 percent of the estimated eligible population, below the final enrolment rates of 94.7 percent in 2023 and 94.1 percent in 2020, the commission said.

New Zealand uses the mixed-member proportional voting system to elect its parliament. Under this system, voters cast two ballots, one for a political party and another for their local electorate candidate. The government is usually formed by two or more parliamentary political parties.

New Zealand's National-led coalition wins majority parliamentary seats: preliminary results