A blue energy option for the Mekong River Basin. An international law analysis on Asian regional cooperation in pioneer osmotic power projects

Based on existing institutional and financial frameworks, the paper foresees Southeast Asian countries jointly tapping salinity gradient through a pilot project on the Mekong Basin. The paper delves on environmental, regulatory and economic challenges of introducing clean cutting-edge blue energy. It aims at encouraging the Mekong River Commission as regional cooperation framework to include it in its development strategy as a means to create a critical mass for cooperative R&D, take advantage of synergies among countries' power generation and environmental conservancy plans, as well as to create opportunities for business, consumers and local authorities to partake in Asia's low-carbon transition.