https://blogs.adb.org/blog/strategies-rapidly-decoupling-carbon-dioxide-...
For over two centuries, economic growth has been driven by burning fossil fuels. But this releases CO2, which is a dominant driver of climate change, with daunting consequences.
This dilemma between carbon-intensive economic growth and climate change is particularly acute in Asia and the Pacific, which generates about 60% of global emissions. The People’s Republic of China (People’s Republic of China) alone generates about half of these emissions. India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Indonesia are also among the top ten CO2 emitters globally.
Efforts must be intensified to accelerate the decoupling of CO2 emissions from GDP growth in Asia and the Pacific.
CO2 emissions have declined in only a quarter of economies in Asia and the Pacific since 1990. These economies represent a mere 9% of the region’s emissions. Notably, emissions fell in most of the Caucasus and Central Asia due to industrial collapses in the 1990s. But they are rising again, though slower than GDP. Emissions have also slightly declined since 1990 in Japan and Singapore. There, the decline has been more recent, driven by moderate demographic growth and cleaner energy sources.
