Australian Industrial Minister Ian Macfarlane said the energy ministers' meeting of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Australia will discuss how to lower emissions from energy.

The three-day meeting of energy ministers and high officials from 21 APEC economies kicked off in Darwin, capital of Northern Territory, on Sunday.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio on Monday quoted Macfarlane as saying energy is a key to economic development in the region and will be the main focus of the meeting.

"(We will) talk about how we manage that sustainable development of the economy, how we manage the fact that energy use will rise quite substantially," he said.

"How we manage the 6 trillion U.S. dollars of investment in energy infrastructure and of course, how we manage to lower the emissions of that energy usage," he added.

A spokesman for Macfarlane said Sunday that APEC economies account for 60 percent of the world's energy demand so the meeting is a crucial opportunity to address the issues.

Australia is hosting a series of APEC meetings in capital cities of states and territories this year.

The meetings will culminate in the APEC leaders' meeting in Australia's largest city of Sydney in September.

APEC comprises 21 member economies which account for more than 40 percent of the world's population.

Source: Xinhua