Blunted by inertia

JAPAN and South Korea, Asia’s richest economies, have made token efforts to boost clean energy investments in the emerging markets of South-east Asia and South Asia, but are far from leading the region’s fight for climate change.

The lack of climate leadership demonstrated by these two nations partly stems from being laggards in climate action in their own domestic markets.

The governments of Japan and South Korea remain some of the most reluctant in fighting climate change, putting a price on carbon or imposing major regulatory restrictions on emissions. Instead, they are opting to wait for clean energy technologies such as hydrogen or ammonia to materialise.