The manufacture of solar photovoltaic panels, electric motorcycles, and batteries presents Southeast Asia with $200 billion in opportunities as there is room to grow in both production capacity and demand not just in the region but the world given the push for all countries to decarbonize by 2050, said McKinsey & Co. Asia Sustainability Practice Partner and Leader Vaibhav Dua at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) fourth Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS).
He cautioned though that unlocking the region’s potential for these three opportunities would depend on whether the right enablers are in place, including regulatory policies, business ecosystems, technologies, and funding.
ADB Director General and Sectors Group Chief-Designate Ramesh Subramaniam also recognized the potential in the three segments, adding partnership is going to be key going forward, as well as providing the enabling environment for the private sector.
There are also commentaries from Sustainable Energy for All CEO and UN-Energy Co-Chair Damilola Ogunbiyi and ClimateWorks Foundation Global Energy Transition Initiative Director Rui Luo, who also represented Bloomberg Philanthropies.
With the theme, "Imagining a Net-Zero ASEAN," SEADS 2023 explored measures governments, communities, and the private sector could take to progress toward carbon neutrality.
