Creating opportunity in East Asia and the Parcific – Climate change

This post is also available in: Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)

Introduction

East Asia and the Pacific need access to reliable and affordable electricity to develop. The challenge is to source this energy sustainably, save energy where possible and adapt to a changing climate at the same time.

There are major opportunities in the region for using renewable energy sources to reach the poor, such as a wind farm in China’s northwestern Gansu province – deep in the Gobi desert and one of the country’s poorest regions. These will require billions of dollars in investment each year, most of which will have to come from the private sector.

The good news is that there is a strong business case for climate investments. The transition to a cleaner energy path is one of the great business opportunities of our time, and IFC supports pilot projects that can serve as models for success.

This is particularly important in China where soaring economic growth, urbanization and the predominance of coal-fired power have inflated greenhouse gas emissions at an unprecedented rate over the last 30 years.