Why so much emphasis on Asia? Lately the transition of the continent from fossil to greener options has caught the media eye. The region has been undeniably pursuing growth strategy, and the high paced economic growth rate has been accompanied by high rates of material and resource consumption.
Developing Asia has taken the lead in benefiting from the globalisation process and the export-based growth model. However, one must not forget the degradation that comes with the full-fledged exploitation of the resources. Amid its development phase, Asia has had an increasing share of resource extraction, carbon emissions and pollution. Indeed, the emphasis on the emerging economies of Asia makes sense.
First, green and low carbon-led economic development has become vital for the region as fossil-based industrialisation and energy consumption is primarily based on the non-renewable carbon emitting resources such as coal and oil.
Though such modernisation has marked the fate of many idustrialised economies of the developed world, it does not provide long-term sustainability measures to the emerging economies as these have larger population and greater poverty levels.
Secondly, this low carbon intensive growth is feasible for the South, South East, and Asia Pacific region where poverty, energy security and resource depletion are the key challenges. Moving towards cleaner options would definitely benefit Asia as it highly suffers from the natural calamities like floods, earthquakes, tsunami and drought, from time to time. Thus it is high time that it should let the green growth take over its local and global efforts.
However, there are many factors that impede low carbon green growth model of development. With a huge gap between the required and the current technology, innovation and hence the mindset, the growth, competitiveness and employment for emerging Asia suffer greatly.
Also the ADBs study on climate change and green Asia suggests that the financing efforts, the building blocks for emission reduction, are also a challenge for the continent especially within smaller and closed economies. Another prerequisite for green and cleaner growth model is the capacity building. This too acts as a constraint due to the lack of decision making and policy initiatives at both local and international levels.
Even today, in many economies like Pakistan, the idea of green growth seems just a fantasy as the transition requires much more on the policy part and government level. Meanwhile, the rising importance within these smaller economies cannot be rebuffed completely.
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