GEO-6 Regional Assessment for Asia and the Pacific
4.3 Emerging issues
4.3.1 Sustainable consumption and production Despite increasing environmental pressures, general patterns of consumption and production in the region have become increasingly based on local knowledge and possibly more sustainable (AASA 2012). Expansion of the middle class has accelerated in the past five years, and is likely to continue on the same path until at least 2030. The size of the global middle class is projected to increase from 1.8 billion (109
) in
2009 to 3.2 billion by 2020 and 4.9 billion by 2030. Most of this growth will come from Asia, which will then represent 66 per cent of the global middle-class population and 59 per cent of middle-class consumption, compared to 28 per cent and 23 per cent respectively in 2009 (OECD 2012).
The developing world’s emerging middle class is a critical economic and social actor because of its potential as an engine of growth, particularly in the largest developing countries such as China and India (Kerschner and Huq 2011). Asia is almost entirely responsible for this emerging middle class, which is projected to triple in these countries to 1.7 billion by 2020. By 2030, Asia would be the home of 3 billion middle-class people. This will be ten times more than North America and five times more than Europe. The new global middle class is likely to demand better environmental
Key Messages
• The region has begun to suffer from new and emerging surprises in climate extremes, which are frequently exceeding historical records, and climate-driven mega-disasters are emerging in new areas and new time periods and season.
• Air and water pollution, once a local phenomenon, is rapidly going beyond the boundaries of cities, countries and sub-regions.
• A revolution in environmental governance is being driven by extensive use of mobile communication, information technology and big data.
• Larger and smarter cities are emerging in the region, with increasing green urban transport and construction, as well as urban green areas.
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protection and more transparency in how governments operate on major environmental issues, although social views and personal behaviour may vary. The world is reaching a tipping point, with the middle class expected to expand dramatically over the coming years. This is one of the most important features of today’s global economic landscape.
Integrated life-cycle assessment of electricity supply scenarios confirms that the large-scale use of wind, photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) could reduce pollution-related environmental impacts of electricity production such as greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater contamination, eutrophication and exposure to particulate matter. The pollution caused by the higher material requirements of these technologies is small compared to the direct emissions of fossil-fuel power plants. Bulk material requirements appear manageable if not negligible compared to current production rates for these materials (Hertwich et al. 2015).
E-commerce and purchasing have expanded rapidly into rural areas and small towns, and even among the older generation, with potential impacts on energy use and environmental footprints (ADB 2014). Local knowledge- based industrial innovation is emerging in many Asian developing countries (Reardon et al. 2012). The supermarket revolution in Asia has been driven by the same factors
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