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South East Asia taking action on climate change

Hot air over Australia  Grant Anderson – News – Business Spectator 26 Nov 09 A report released this week that I co-authored, One Hat Does Not Fit All, illustrates that a number of our neighbours in the Asia Pacific region are highly cognisant of the challenges climate change presents and, like Australia, are adopting climate change initiatives that are compatible with their economic development goals and their individual circumstances.

While the Australian (and New Zealand) debates have centred largely on their respective emissions trading schemes, an emissions trading scheme is not the only weapon in the climate change policy armoury. Indeed, it would simply not be practical to implement such a scheme in many of our developing-nation neighbours. But this does not mean that countries in our region are doing nothing.

Countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia are seeking to capitalise on their renewable energy resources, while Malaysia and Thailand are using their abundant biofuel sources to displace some of their reliance on fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, the more developed countries of Japan, Singapore and South Korea are focusing on improving their energy efficiency. And the potential to create carbon credits for avoided deforestation and forest degradation in Indonesia (and, to a lesser extent, Papa New Guinea) will, if realised, not only contribute to reduced global emissions but also provide substantial revenue streams for these countries.

Another of the great myths is that China has put its burgeoning development ahead of climate change. It is true that the volume of China’s emissions is growing rapidly, but it is working hard to counteract this with a series of measures. In particular, China is concentrating on reducing its emissions and energy-intensity as it clearly recognises that long term economic growth is only sustainable when married with lower emissions technologies.

For example, China has a target of achieving 10 per cent of its electricity supply from renewable energy sources by 2010, increasing to 15 per cent in 2020, with substantial amounts of wind (from 30 to 100GW), hydro (300GW), biomass (30GW) and solar (from 1.8 to 10GW).

Hot air over Australia – Grant Anderson – News – Business Spectator

November 25, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, ASIA, climate change, renewable | Copenhagen, renewableenergy, renewables