Sustaining the low-carbon emission development in Asia and beyond: Sustainable energy, water, transportation and low-carbon emission technology

Abstract

Climate change is global issues with significant economic, social and environmental implications. Climate change mitigation in Asia has large impacts on global CO 2 emission reduction. CO 2 emission is the largest source of greenhouse gas emission constitutes about 65 % of the total emission. Low-carbon Society initiative is one of the various mechanisms that have been deployed to achieve green economic growth, societal well-being and development, environmental preservation and management in a holistic manner. Energy efficiency improvement in Asia will be a key factor to tackle the climate change issues. Water and energy conservation, green transportation and low emission technology are the key aspects to catalyse the shift towards climate-resilient economic growth. The latest developments in these aspects are reviewed in this special volume to sustain the development of low-carbon emission in Asian countries. The use of holistic management system to integrate these key areas for long-term sustainability goal is also highlighted.

Environmental Degradation and Economic Growth in ASEAN-10: The Perspective of EKC Hypothesis

“…Inversely, the output has also contributed to the deterioration of environment especially in the early stages of development of emerging economies and economies in transition whereby most sectors appear to depend largely on obsolete production technologies (Lee, Hashim, Ho, Fan, & Klemeš, 2017;Yang & Li, 2017) and foreign direct investors seeking natural resources and cost efficiency may target these economies as an external engine for economic growth (Abbes, Mostéfa, Seghir, & Zakarya, 2015;Adams, 2009;Boateng, Hua, Nisar, & Wu, 2015). However, at later stages when technology advancements have been achieved as a result of economic growth and more demanding stakeholders with improved real income has raised their voices for the need of a healthy living environment (Lee et al, 2017;Yang & Li, 2017), renewable energy production technologies, which consume solar and biomass energy, electricity and wind power instead of fossil fuels, would replace unclean ones thus mitigating the environmental degradation (Hosseini & Wahid, 2016).…”

A quantitative study of financing efficiency of low‐carbon companies: A three‐stage data envelopment analysis

“…The development of low‐carbon industries and the increase of their efficiency are important to a country's economic growth and sustainability (Campiglio, ; Hu, Zhang, & Chao, ; Lee, Hashim, Ho, Fan, & Klemeš, ). Access to finance is critical for the development of low‐carbon industries.…”

“…Specifically, the literature has largely focused on energy and TE (e.g., Du & Mao, ; Lee & Zhang, ; Zhu, Niu, Ruth, & Shi, ), implementing low‐carbon technologies to improve economic efficiency (e.g., Gillingham & Sweeney, ; Jenkins, ), and the effectiveness of low‐carbon investments and financing from financial institutions (e.g., Campiglio, ; Hanson & Laitner, ; Kameyama, Morita, & Kubota, ; Mazzucato & Semieniuk, ; Polzin, ). Unfortunately, performance indicators used for low‐carbon industries have often been criticized for being inadequate and not conducive to analysing efficiency (Hoffmann & Busch, ; Hu et al, ; Lee et al, ). Although prior literature has also identified both macroeconomic conditions (e.g., interest rate, regulatory conditions, accounting system, banking structure, and accessibility of banking services) and firm‐specific characteristics (e.g., ownership, size, scale, financial capital, and liquidity ratio) determine a firm's financing efficiency (e.g., Altunbas, Liu, Molyneux, & Seth, ; Dietsch & Lozano‐Vivas, ; Fries & Taci, ; Nan & Wen, ; Zeng, Jiang, Ma, & Su, ), little evidence is available on the actual level of financing efficiency of low‐carbon companies.…”

Use of Landscape Environmental Setting for Pedestrian to Enhance Campus Walkability and Healthy Lifestyle

“…Motorised vehicles contribute to air pollution, global warming, and climate change [6]. Sustainable transportation such as walking and cycling can help reduce these problems [7]. In the context of the universities, many campuses are places with high concentration of students using motorised vehicles such as motorcycles and cars contributing to traffic congestion, consuming large spaces for vehicle parking, reducing green areas, and lowering the air quality [8].…”