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Climate battle will ‘succeed or fail’ in Asia: UN
TOKYO, Aug 2, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The battle to combat climate change will
“succeed or fail” based on what happens in Asia, where growing energy needs
are increasing demand for fossil fuels, UN officials said Friday.
The United Nations will host a key climate summit next month that has been
billed as a last chance to prevent irreversible climate change, three years
after the Paris agreement went into force.
Commitments from countries in Asia to move towards carbon-neutral
economies would be crucial, said Rachel Kyte, a UN special representative for
the UN Secretary-General.
“It is really in this region that we will succeed or fail in the energy
transition in order to be able to meet our climate change goals,” Kyte told
reporters.
The summit hopes to secure commitments to zero net carbon by 2050, but
growing demand for electricity in Asia is likely to be one of the key
obstacles.
“Southeast Asia is one of the fastest growing economic regions in the
world. This is where population and urbanisation mean that electricity demand
is expected to triple between 2015 and 2040,” warned Kyte.
“In order to meet this, Southeast Asia is currently turning to fossil
fuels, many countries are.”
New coal plant projects continue throughout the region, particularly in
Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, and countries including Japan are
funding their construction despite criticism from climate groups.
But Kyte said the sector should be seen as on its way out.
“There is really no future for coal,” she insisted.
“It is not competitive by price… and it has such an extreme impact on
human health as well as on the planet.”
In recent months, some private sector firms in Japan and elsewhere have
moved away from funding coal, seeing it as a poor long-term investment, a
trend that Kyte said was encouraging, along with growing energy efficiency in
China and India.
Luis Alfonso de Alba, UN Special Envoy for the Climate Action Summit, also
challenged the idea that the transformations needed to combat global warming
would hamstring economic development.
“Fighting climate change is fully compatible with the fight against
poverty,” he said.
“There are many opportunities, especially for those that will take the
lead in this transition, which in any case is going to be inevitable.”
A key part of the climate summit’s success will be China’s commitment,
which remains both a leading emitter and also a key financier of coal plants
in the region.
Beijing wields significant economic clout throughout the region and beyond
thanks to its Belt and Road Initiative, which funds infrastructure projects
and more.
“The greening of the belt and road initiative is absolutely essential,”
Kyte said.
“We are tentatively positive about the extraordinary hard work that is
going on in China to make sure that that happens.”
BSS/AFP/RY/1718 hrs