Letters | Climate change: what Asia must watch out for as it pursues a just energy transition

While various parts of Asia have formulated climate change mitigation policies, the decision-making process tends to be top-down, with insufficient focus on the specifics of how to formulate and implement decarbonisation pathways

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Electrical workers in a boat check solar panels at a photovoltaic power station built in a fishpond in Haian in China’s eastern Jiangsu province in 2021. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:30pm, 4 May 2022Updated: 5:26pm, 4 May 2022

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has published three working group reports, reaffirming the indisputable fact that climate change is caused by human activities. We must accelerate climate action to limit temperature rises to well below 2 degrees Celsius, as required by the Paris Agreement.

CarbonCare InnoLab recently hosted a webinar, where 13 experts from Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, India, mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong addressed the opportunities and challenges involved in achieving a just energy transition in Asia.

While various parts of Asia have formulated climate change mitigation policies, the decision-making process tends to be top-down, with less attention paid to the specifics of how to formulate and implement decarbonisation pathways.

Meanwhile, there is scepticism surrounding technological solutions to climate change, including the reactivation of nuclear power and the application of carbon removal. Even though new energy technologies, such as green hydrogen, have considerable potential, this potential very much depends on the maturity of large-scale use of technologies and involves longer return on investment, higher costs and potential risks.

Also, consider the case of Jeju of South Korea. Not all the renewable energy that is produced there is being used even though it works as well as gas-fired power. Instead, the grid operator has “curtailed”, or released, many hours of output of renewable energy, to avoid destabilising the existing power grid.

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Letters | Climate change: what Asia must watch out for as it pursues a just energy transition