Carbon Forum Asia
arbon Forum AsiaAlthough the global shift in economic power from west to east has gathered pace, Asia’s questionable energy supply could threaten its impressive economic growth.
The ‘Carbon Forum Asia’ in Singapore last week, a leading platform for Asia-Pacific’s carbon and energy market, which was attended by 1,028 participants from 50 countries, felt the need to move away from abundant fuels like coal, which is the primary source of energy for the region.
With world energy consumption nearing 53 percent growth annually, the forum raised concerns that some parts of the world may soon run out of energy, and threaten economic growth and job creation.
While renewable energy, such as wind and solar, has been identified to light and fuel the future of Asia, investments in these areas have been highly expensive, and least developed economies in the region continue to rely on coal, the cheapest and the primary source of energy.
“Investment in wind and solar energy is expensive,” an international participant said, adding such areas need high technological maturity.
This has been recognised as a challenge in helping smaller developing countries transit towards low carbon development.
Currently, only countries like China, India and South Korea have adopted renewable energy technologies with state of the art systems. But development of such technologies has been moving at a slower pace.
The two-day conference also highlighted reduction of carbon footprints by way of carbon trading. The global carbon market saw 3.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide exchanged over the first six months of 2011 valued at USD 71B. This is a three percent increase from the same period last year.
Vice president of Asia Pacific’s Koelnmesse, Michael Dreyer, said nations in the region are also setting up domestic trading schemes, including China, India, Taiwan and South Korea. Koelnmesse is the largest energy trade fair company.
He also said Asia has put extra effort to move toward clean energy, and around 80 percent of clean development mechanism (CDM) projects come from Asia.
While some countries are gaining by selling emissions to energy-starved countries, there are no incentives however for countries, which have pledged to remain carbon neutral. Focal persons at the forum said the global community should work out an incentive for around 14 carbon neutral countries, including Bhutan and the Maldives that have committed to remain carbon neutral.
Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank launched the Asia solar energy initiative, which seeks to produce 3,000 megawatts of solar electricity by 2013 across the region in a cost effective way, and compete with electricity from coal-powered plants.
Source: kuenselonline