The Asian Equation: Solving the Puzzle of Sustainable Investment on the World's Most Complex Continent

Most people live in Asia. With a population over 3.8 billion, it is home to more than four times the people who live in Africa, the world's second-most populous continent. Unsurprisingly, Asia contributes more greenhouse gas emissions than the other continents.

That bursting population puts a lot of stress on the environment. The Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS), a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based non-profit environmental advocacy group, notes that the Asian region "faces a range of climate impacts, including extreme heat, imperiled drinking water resources, and accelerated sea-level rise, which can lead to widespread population displacement, food insecurity, and costly damage to coastal cities and towns."[1]

To be sure, the road to a sustainable future for the entire planet goes directly through Asia.

ASIA'S COMPLEXITY QUOTIENT: ONE CONTINENT, MANY VOICES

But that road covers a lot of very different territory. With widely varying ecosystems, attitudes, cultures, religions, infrastructures, economies, policies and governments, Asia is far from monolithic. As UCS points out, the Asian region encompasses "Indonesia, which faces significant pressures on its tropical forest resources; the oil-rich countries of the Middle East; and the rapidly developing nations of China and India (currently the world's number one and four annual emitters of CO2 respectively)."[2]

Click here to continue reading and comment

Reynard is a Justmeans staff writer for Sustainable Finance and Corporate Social Responsibility. A former media executive with 15 years experience in the private and non-profit sectors, Reynard is the co-founder of MomenTech, a New York-based experimental production studio that explores transnational progressivism, neo-nomadism, post-humanism and futurism. He is also author of the blog 13.7 Billion Years, covering cosmology, biodiversity, animal welfare, conservation and ethical consumption. He is currently developing the Underground Desert Living Unit (UDLU), a sustainable single-family dwelling envisioned as a potential adaptation response to the future loss of human habitat due to the effects of anthropogenic climate change. Reynard is also a contributing author of "Biomes and Ecosystems," a comprehensive reference encyclopedia of the Earth's key biological and geographic classifications, to be published by Salem Press in 2013.