Accelerating Asia’s energy transition urgently needed – report

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched a new report on Thursday recommended Asia cut fossils usage and accelerate clean energy transition.

The report referred to developing countries in Asia allocating $116 billion in 2021 to subsidise fossil fuels. On the other hand, only $397 billion has been invested in the clean energy transition.

David Raitzer, an ADB economist and one of the report’s authors referred to carbon fuelling Asia’s economic development. Carbon usage in Asia is reported to be much above the world average.

Swati D’Souza, a New Delhi-based energy analyst highlighted the issue of the dependency of Asian development on fossils. Raitzer has referred to the urgency of removing existing subsides for fossil fuels in order to reduce carbon emissions.

Report’s estimations suggested the transition towards clean energy would have huge social and economic benefits. Additionally, developing countries in Asia meeting their energy transition goals would have saved the lives of 346,000 lives by 2030.