Green Economy: An Opportunity for Sustainable Growth of Asian Countries

Abstract

Asian countries are growing with rapid pace and competing with European and Western Countries in order to make their presence felt in the global market. Globally demand of goods and services from Asian countries has been consistently increasing since the last decade many due to low production cost. With the increase in population, need and demand of various products and services required for maintenance of quality of life is also increasing. This paradigm shift has put burden on the environment of this region. Increases in economic growth has also led to rise in carbon emission. Moving toward greener economy is the need of hour. We must take steps to ensure that our manufacturing and production aimed toward economic growth and development is adopting greener practices like conserving energy, reducing carbon emission, minimizing wastage of resources and minimizing all types of pollution. This paper attempts to assess the carbon emission of Asian countries and tries to find out association between carbon emission and economic growth (GDP) of these countries. In Asia, there are huge differences among countries in term of demography, stage of economic development and other economic indicators due to which the impact of economic activity on environment is also different. The perception and approach of Asian countries toward the link of economic development and environmental degradation, too is extremely different. The paper also intends to find out the various policies adopted by Asian counties to maintain the balance between economy and environment. Further opportunities with respect to solar and wind energy needs to be explored to reduce carbon emission and conserve the environment.

Keywords: climate change, economic growth, energy, environment

JEL Classification: A, O