On the afternoon of October 9, 2024, the Boao Forum for Asia Academy held an online expert meeting to kick off the writing of the BFA 2025 Flagship Report “Sustainable Development in Asia and the World: Addressing Climate Change - Asia Going Green”. Members of the expert group, including Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, member of the BFA Council of Advisors, Ms. Helena McLeod, Deputy Director General of the Global Green Growth Institute, Dr. Erik Berglof, Chief Economist of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Mr. Fabrizio Costa, former Economic and Financial Counsellor of the Embassy of Italy in China, and Ms. Lilly Managing Partner of Sustainability at Deloitte China shared their valuable insights with the drafting team. The meeting was moderated by Ms. Cao Li, Vice President of the Boao Forum for Asia Academy.
The experts pointed out that climate change has posed severe real threats to Asian countries. It imposes enormous challenges to future sustainable growth, but also brings new development opportunities. Asian countries are pragmatically advancing green development through adopting various policy mixes, accelerating technological research and deployment and scaling up finance both from the public and private sectors. Strengthening international cooperation is a key approach to addressing and resolving many challenges in the process of green transformation. Experts also emphasized that Asia can introduce many innovative mechanisms and tools to the world by utilizing nature-based climate solutions and promoting decarbonization through incentive mechanisms such as carbon pricing and carbon markets, thus leading the direction of development.
Under the guidance of the experts, the drafting team, composed of researchers from the Boao Forum for Asia Academy, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Global Green Growth Institute, and Deloitte China, engaged in in-depth discussions on the overall framework and key content of the report. The report intends to conduct a panoramic scan of Asia and at the same time to showcase the proactive actions and latest practices of multiple Asian countries, through vivid case studies, in addressing climate change and pursuing green transition, so as to promote and strengthen international cooperation, implement the UN SDGs and tackle global challenges with collective efforts.
