Asia is at a crossroads. As the world’s most populous region, with high economic growth, a rising share of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the most vulnerability to climate risks, Asia must be at the center in the global fight against climate change. Simply stated, Asia’s current resource- and emission-intensive growth pattern is not sustainable, with further gains in human well-being constrained by the environmental carrying capacity. This study recognizes low-carbon green growth as an imperative—not an option—for developing Asia.

This new working paper by ADBI focuses on four major environmental challenges that policymakers across Asia will need to address towards 2030 - water management, air pollution, deforestation and land degradation and climate change.

As an integral part of sustainable development, the impacts from climate change, including increasing water stress, more extreme weather events, the potential for high levels of migration and the disruption of international markets are critical challenges for all Asian countries. With rapid economic growth and modernization, the countries in the region are increasing production and consumption, calling for critical adaption measures.

Many rural poor people in developing countries depend on agriculture and are highly influenced by climatic change. Hence, sustainable livelihood approaches are used at both policy and project level to initiate new poverty reduction activities and modify existing activities to improve livelihood incomes. Practices relevant to climate change adaptation around the world are wide-ranging and include development of technology, management, infrastructure, livestock, groundwater, and knowledge.

This paper examines three software and/or information technology enabled services (ITES) industries—two in the early stages of development (in the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and the Philippines) and one mature one (in India). Being latecomers to offshoring work, the PRC and the Philippines have developed this industry in cooperation with multinational enterprises (MNEs).

This document asserts that there is an increasing evidence that climate change has an impact on natural disasters, such as flooding, and on agricultural production, both of which have implications for gender issues. It briefly reviews issues related to gender and poverty. Finally, an example of job recovery after a disaster and interview three female agricultural workers in Japan are discussed.

The Indian economy has shown considerable resilience to the global economic crisis by maintaining one of the highest growth rates in the world. The services sector accounted for around 88% of the growth rate in real gross domestic product in 2008–09.

This study investigates the impact of global crisis shocks on India’s trade and industry. the estimated results show that show that changes in trade composition are positively associated with changes in manufacturing composition in India, controlling for other variables.

This recent ADB paper estimates the need for infrastructure investment, including energy, transport, telecommunications, water, and sanitation during 2010-2020, in order to meet growing demands for services and facilitate further rapid growth in the region. It shows that developing countries in Asia require financing of US$776 billion per year for national (US$747 billion) and regional (US$29 billion) infrastructure during 2010-2020 to meet growing demand.