Regional Context and Priorities


Impressive improvements in water efficiency have reduced water use per US dollar of gross domestic product (GDP) by 90 per cent in developing countries in the region. However, water intensity in Asia and the Pacific region was almost double the world average in 2015 (Figure 1.2.13).


This high water intensity has been recorded mainly in South and Southeast Asian sub-regions, where economies are dominated by agriculture, which requires higher volumes of water (Figure 1.2.14).


1.2.5 Economic growth is decoupling from resource consumption


Some Asia and the Pacific countries have been largely successful in decoupling economic growth from resource consumption: GDP continues to grow while resource use has increased at a slower rate or decreased. The region as a whole, however, has not achieved decoupling.


Decoupling aims to achieve more with less. There is ample research available indicating that decarbonization of the energy system and dematerialization of the economy can occur with negligible impacts on economic growth and employment (Schandl et al. 2015). There are, however, different ways to decouple including through structural change and increasing the share of national income in service sectors which have a lower material intensity, decoupling through externalizing material and energy intensive production to third countries, and decoupling through policy efforts.


Although individual countries have achieved decoupling, this has not led to increased material and energy productivity for the region as a whole. The main reason is that the production consumes more materials in less resource- efficient economies. In 1970, 65 per cent of the GDP of the region was produced by Japan and only 6 per cent by China, but by 2013, Japan’s share had fallen to 31 per cent of overall


Figure 1.2.14: Asia and the Pacific, its sub-regions and world, water intensity of the economy, litres per USD of GDP, 1970, 1990 and 2015


0 Australia and New Zealand


Northeast Asia South Asia Southeast Asia The Pacific


Asia and the Pacific Rest of the World World


1970 Sources: CSIRO 2015; UNEP 2015 25 1990 2015 500 1 000


Litres per US dollar 1 500


2 000 2 500 3 000 3 500


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