Enabling low-carbon emissions for sustainable development in Asia and beyond

Abstract

Over 90% of economies in Asia have submitted the mitigation objectives in the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) for reducing GHG emissions targets and communicating other relevant climate policy actions. It is crucial to continuously monitor the achievement of this GHG mitigation targets using monitoring tools and evidenced by scientific methods. This Special Volume (SV) is devoted to presenting feasible cleaner technologies supported by environmental assessment tool to enable the transition of Asia into a low-carbon-emission economy. A half of the Asia emissions reduction through 2050 is contributed by low-carbon-emission energy production and another third from energy efficiency measures, with the rest achieved by curtailing emissions from forest deforestation, land degradation, and other non-energy sources. The concept of enabling low carbon emissions is not just reducing the CO2 equivalent (eq.), it concerns on other negative impacts of the emission on the whole ecosystem such as particle matter and other emissions (NOx, O3, and SOx) that are threatening the air quality and premature. Carbon emissions from the major sectors of energy, transportation, and industrial waste with the focus of presenting feasible cleaner practices or technologies to enable the implementation of sustainable development in Asia are presented. Life cycle and environmental management study on the assessment methods for environmental impact prevention, control or minimisation. Waste to wealth presented the cleaner technologies developed to convert waste resources into valuable products to promote a green economy. Process system engineering and LCA tools are widely applied in the energy sector; they could be applied to other sectors as well as to evaluate the sustainability performance index. On-going efforts are essential to close the gaps among technology providers, government sectors and investor to enable a low-carbon emissions transition in Asia.