Gyongju, South Korea - More than 1,000 experts, business leaders and scholars from 20 nations gathered Thursday in an eastern South Korean city to draw up strategies on how to accelerate the development of ecologically friendly energy sources.

The three-day World Global Energy Forum opened amid growing concerns about climate change and the threat it poses to people, especially those living at or near sea level.

India's RK Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Nobel Peace Prize-winning climate-change panel, warned that global warming would raise average sea levels.

"The projected sea-level rise could flood the residences of millions of people living in low-lying areas, such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and China," Pachauri said. "Up to 50 per cent of Asians are at risk due to climate change."

"A switch to solar energy can light up the darkness of our life," he added.

The forum was initiated by the government of South Korea's Gyungbuk region, about 400 kilometres south-east of Seoul.

"We are ready to blow the vitality of green energy into a tourism attraction for our province," North Gyeongsang Governor Kim Kwan Yong said.

The province, which sits along the east coast, is leading the nation in building clusters of green-energy plants.

"Some time ago, Spanish wind-power engineers came to our village near the East Sea and checked the wind quality," the governor said.

"They were impressed by the beauty of the wind, which is perfect for wind power plants," he added. "Today, they are constructing the wind power plant in our province."

The forum was expected to draw up an international strategy to develop solar, nuclear and gas-hybrid energy as a prime source of industrial power.

Leading green-energy experts - such as University of Florida professor Timothy Anderson and Anil Kane, president of the World Wind Energy Association - were expected to speak at the forum.

It would also host business panel discussions with green-energy firms, including SunPower Corp. (dpa)