UN roadmap pushes for low carbon policies in Asia-Pacific region

A UN roadmap launched yesterday has announced that Asia-Pacific nations must adopt low carbon policies in order to reduce poverty and sustain growth. The roadmap is designed to provide strategies to assist developing countries to deal with declining natural resources and climate change.

Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) says, “The Asia-Pacific region cannot achieve development goals fully by following conventional growth strategies.” The roadmap includes 63 policy options and 51 examples to create the required change.

“Resource constraints, price volatility and the climate crisis have removed business as usual as an option and require a serious re-examination of resource and carbon-intensive growth strategies. If our region is to sustain the high economic growth that we need to achieve our development goals, then we must shift to a different growth trajectory,” said Heyzer.

The Asia-Pacific region will of course be crucial in the coming years, in terms of creating a more sustainable future. It currently uses three times the resources of the rest of the world to produce a unit of GDP. It is also the fastest growing region, with China and India both expanding rapidly. It will therefore use its natural resources extremely quickly, and efforts to reduce carbon intensity of the region's industry will be essential.

Yet ESCAP also states that the move to a low carbon economy is an opportunity to develop a different kind of economy. “The countries of Asia and the Pacific should lead this process by generating the regional momentum necessary to move towards a green economy capable of lifting people out of poverty and achieving inclusive, resilient and sustainable development,” Heyzer concludes.