Bangkok--11 Mar--AIT
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in five South Asian countries — Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka could be reduced by one-fifth by 2020 at a reasonably low cost in case they adopt clean technologies. This is a finding of a study co-authored by Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)’s Professor Emeritus Ram Manohar Shrestha titled “The Economics of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in South Asia,” which has been recently published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Prof Shrestha was the lead consultant to the ADB in carrying out the study under the first part of the Bank’s regional technical assistance project titled “Regional Economics of Climate Change in South Asia (RECCSA)”.
Prof. Shrestha revealed that there is a potential to reduce 13.3 million tons (about 10 per cent) of CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in these five countries in 2020 by deploying ‘no regret’ cleaner technology and resource options. The cleaner options have the potential to reduce 20 per cent of the GHG emissions in 2020 at an incremental abatement cost of 10 USD per ton of CO2.
The study identifies several clean, low-cost technology options including replacing fossil fuel generation with renewable or cleaner energy such as solid waste or gas; using more fuel-efficient or greener technologies like energy-efficient irrigation pumps, solar cookstoves, electric or more efficient diesel vehicles and biodiesel fishing vessels.
The study states that the total primary energy needs of these five countries in 2030 would be 2.4 times that in 2005 in the absence of climate change policies and that the total energy-related GHG emissions from the five countries would increase from around 58.2 million tons of CO2 equivalent in 2005 to 244.7 million tons by 2030. “Countries need a new look at their resource and energy options in order to develop a low-carbon path that can provide sustained high economic growth and simultaneously abate GHG emissions,” it says.
The report focuses on cleaner technologies that promote low-carbon development and climate change mitigation; and adaptation to climate change impacts. Coauthors of the report include Mahfuz Ahmed, Suphachol Suphachalasai and Rodel Lasco.