The Asian Development Bank recently urged economies in the Asia Pacific to overhaul their energy sector to address the worsening impact of climate change and further the transition into a net-zero future.
“The transition to a net-zero future will not be stress-free: It calls for an overhaul of the energy sector – it’s policies structure, governance, financing and technologies, ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa said during the opening of the Asia Clean Energy Forum.
“We must strive to transition to clean, secure and resilient energy that can also support just and inclusive growth for the region,” he added.
The Asia-Pacific region accounts for over 50 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, some 157 million people are still living without electricity.
That makes energy policies that pursue universal access to reliable, affordable and sustainable energy services while promoting low carbon transition important for governments and their people. For relatively backward countries like the Philippines, one such thrust would be accelerating the early retirement and phase out of coal-fired power plants.
Investment in climate-resilient infrastructure to speed up recovery from the pandemic and employing tools to scale up renewable energy infrastructures without harming the environment would also be helpful at this critical juncture of our history when humanity has the obligation to mitigate further man-made damage to the planet and protect future generations from the devastating impacts of unleashed climate change.
Overhauling the energy sector is a must for all nations at this point in time. The Philippines is among those that have been lagging behind when it comes to concrete action as far as this initiative is concerned but if the new administration poised to take over has the right priorities, we might just be able to catch up and make a more significant contribution to this Herculean effort that the rest of humanity is currently undertaking.*
