The latest edition of IETA Insights 2018 features an article exploring the massive green investment potential of Southeast Asia's developing carbon policies, authored by South Pole's Director Carbon Markets and Climate Policy, Jeff Swartz.
The next few years of climate policy developments in Southeast Asia will be pivotal in determining whether the world achieves the Paris Agreement's 2ºC goal – and in unlocking regional green growth opportunities worth an estimated $1 trillion.
Fuelled largely by coal-fired power plants, the rapid growth of Southeast Asia in recent decades has engendered a slew of widely-reported environmental repercussions. Beyond that, it has threatened regional prospects of continued development and helped put the wider world at risk of the most serious effects of climate change. Many threats are already manifesting, for example the health impacts of toxic air pollution in the region.
China's long-anticipated announcement of its national emissions trading scheme (ETS) in December last year was a welcome development and one air pollution was undoubtedly one factor driving its development within China's existing climate policy blueprint.
The Chinese ETS will hopefully also incentivise its Southeast Asian neighbours to develop and intensify their own carbon policies, and many across the region are rising to the challenge already.
There are also many opportunities for inter- and intra-regional cooperation, both between sovereign states of the region, and also in cross-border collaboration between governments and the private sector.
As a global economic growth powerhouse Southeast Asia is truly the space to watch right now, as emerging public and private efforts to drive down its emissions will not only unlock billions of dollars in green finance – they will be vital in realising a future below 2°C.
You can read the full article on our corporate blog here.
