Addressing Asia’s digital conundrum is key to fulfilling net-zero ambitions

IN A matter of two decades, the Asia-Pacific has emerged as a global economic growth engine. Now, in the middle of a digital revolution, Asia faces newly emerging challenges that, if left unaddressed, may curtail its growth.

Specifically, digital technologies have injected new life, and potential, into critical sectors ranging from agriculture to manufacturing, and hold the key to supporting emerging economies to move up the value chain. Yet, as home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, there is also burgeoning demand for more, lower-cost energy that is only set to grow in tandem with digital ambitions.

Therein lies the conundrum: Asia is digitalising at breakneck speed, and while the region stands to gain from this rapid development, it also has more to lose than most from climate change. Paradoxically, opportunities realised by Asia’s transformation in recent years are simultaneously responsible for enormous amounts of carbon emissions that are exacerbating its climate-related risks.