This study discusses the real and present challenges in improving energy security and reducing carbon intensity in Asia and the Pacific. The region needs expanding supplies of energy to improve the lives of the poor through continued rapid economic growth, while simultaneously ensuring that this development is locally and globally environmentally sustainable. Given the current patterns of consumption, developing countries in the region are projected to account for 39% of global demand for primary energy by 2030. A detailed analysis of the socioeconomic conditions and the energy resource endowment within countries of the region, their perceptions of energy vulnerability, and an assessment of what are perceived to be real options to overcome the vulnerability and the barriers to exercising these options reveals an interesting, but challenging, range of issues that would need to be addressed to facilitate the transition to a clean and secure energy future.