BOOK REVIEW

A. Srinivasan, F. H. Ling and H. Mori (eds): Climate smartdevelopment in Asia: transition to low carbon and climateresilient economies

Routledge, Abingdon, Earthscan, 2012, 250 pp, Hardback,ISBN: 978-1-84407-861-5

Wen J. Wang • Hong S. He

Received: 23 January 2014 / Accepted: 30 January 2014 / Published online: 13 February 2014

� Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

With today’s rapid economic and population growth,

many countries in Asia have entered the most carbon-

and energy-intensive stages of their development. The

resulting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have

become the major contributor to global greenhouse

gas (GHG) emissions and global climate change. By

2030, Asia is projected to contribute 45 % of global

GHG emissions, even though the industrial per capita

production and energy consumption in developing

countries (e.g., China, India) are relatively low. The

impacts of climate change have caused immense

damage to many parts of Asia in the forms of

increased frequency and intensity of extreme climate

events, including hurricanes, floods, and droughts.

Therefore, the transition of Asian economies from a

‘‘carbon intensive and climate sensitive’’ paradigm to

‘‘low carbon climate and resilient economies (LCEs)’’

in both developed and developing countries will be

essential to realizing future reductions in GHG

emissions and thereby the stabilization of global

climate. However, research on LCE is still in its

infancy throughout the world and even more so in

Asia. Peer-reviewed syntheses of the literature on

issues associated with LCE have been limited—

including the means of financing, governance, and

technological capacity for reducing emissions.

The recent book, ‘‘Climate Smart Development in

Asia: Transition to Low Carbon and Climate Resilient

Economies’’ edited by Ancha Srinivasan, Frank Ling,

and Hideyuki Mori and published by Routledge in

2012, attempts to produce a practical and forward-

looking source of information on LCEs in Asia for

researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. The book,

comprising four sections, highlights the technical,

economic, financial, and institutional challenges and

opportunities for transitioning to LCE in Asia. Section I

(Chapter 1) covers the broad context of climate-smart

development and enabling transition to LCE. Section II

includes five chapters (2–6) that cover national-level

LCE endeavors and mitigation and adaption strategies.

Section III includes five chapters (7–11) that discuss

enabling conditions to climate-smart development in

Asian cities. Section IV comprises a single chapter (12)

that summarizes the way forward.

As the most developed country in Asia, Japan leads

technological innovation and provides a regional and

global role in finding solutions to LCE. Chapter 2

discusses the potential transition to LCE and the

progress made in Japan by focusing on mitigation and

adaptation strategies for improving energy efficiency,

developing renewables, urban renewal, and sustain-

able transportation. Although much attention has been

paid to mitigating climate risk, the authors argue that

W. J. Wang � H. S. He (&)

School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri,

203 ABNR Bldg, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

e-mail: heh@missouri.edu

H. S. He

State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology, Institute

of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences,

Shenyang, Liaoning, China

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Landscape Ecol (2014) 29:559–561

DOI 10.1007/s10980-014-9999-9

Japan has been relatively slow to integrate adaptation

measures into its development strategies.

With about 40 % of the world’s population, India

and China alone are expected to account for 50 % of

the growth in global primary energy demand between

2010 and 2035. Chapter 3 discusses the various

technical, financial, and human resource barriers to

reducing GHG emissions. The authors argue that the

commitments to reducing GHG emissions would

undermine its economic development and thereby

impede poverty alleviation. Chapter 4 discusses the use

of wind power in China to illustrate both challenges

and opportunities for advanced technologies to achieve

LCE in China. Although China has already made

significant progress in developing wind energy, their

deployment is inhibited by conflicts between importing

advanced technologies versus their local production,

confusing pricing mechanisms, inconsistent policies,

and shortage of skilled labor and component networks.

In countries like Indonesia, because of high levels

of poverty and unemployment, they cannot afford to

sacrifice economic growth to reduce GHG emissions.

Chapter 5 discusses mitigation and adaptation strate-

gies for moving toward LCE in Indonesia. The authors

claim that the lack of available technology, low

technical and institutional capacity, and limited gov-

ernment budgets remain major barriers to implement-

ing mitigation and adaptation policies in Indonesia.

Private sectors play an important role in the

transition to climate-smart development, and their

ability to influence government policy is not negligi-

ble. Chapter 6 presents Taiwan’s strategy for reducing

GHG emissions to illustrate potential voluntary

approaches to achieving LCE.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies

have been proposed, including its capture, transport,

and storage components. Chapter 7 discusses CCS

with respect to coal and associated costs and invest-

ment needs, and barriers to CCS development.

Although developing and employing clean coal tech-

nologies represent possible routes to meeting climate

stabilization goals, their feasibility and scalability are

still being explored.

Accelerating the transition to LCEs requires invest-

ment and financial stimulus. Chapter 8 discusses

challenges for financing climate-smart development,

particularly how the United Nation’s Framework

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other

public finance initiatives can attract the investment

and financial flow at various stages of the technology

innovation process. A global carbon tax, a levy on

auctioning of carbon credits, and levies on interna-

tional air travel and shipping have been discussed as

policy instruments that can be used to account for

negative externalities associated with GHG emissions.

There are various options for decarbonizing the

energy sector including renewable energy, nuclear

power, and CCS. In Asia, much attention has been

directed to the role of urban environments and transpor-

tation systems at the municipal level. Chapter 9 presents

analyses that examine ways of urban governance that can

enable the transition to a LCE in two important sectors:

buildings in China and transportation in India. These

analyses show that, while adaptive capacities are

emerging, cities in Asia are not yet climate-resilient

and that the various sources of their high levels of

vulnerability remain to be identified. The chapter also

identifies steps that can be important prerequisites for

city-level actions useful in planning and policy-making.

Hydropower accounts for 16 % of global electricity

production and is significant in many developing

countries in Asia. Chapter 10 discusses key issues

related to hydropower development: small versus

large hydropower, current policies supporting hydro-

power, and accelerating small hydropower develop-

ment across Asia. The chapter selects cases from India

and China and discusses finance and policies related to

hydropower development in Asia.

Biomass is the primary energy source for rural

populations in many developing countries. Chapter 11

discusses biogas as a means for converting soft

biomass to methane, which can provide energy for

use in rural areas. The authors state that although the

required technologies for converting biomass to

biogas are already near commercialization and can

potentially provide a sustainable, self-reliant, and low-

carbon energy economy, various social, financial, and

information barriers can block the implementation of

necessary policies.

Section IV (Chapter 12) summarizes the topics of

enabling environmental mitigation, technology,

finance, capacity-building, and research gaps that

revolve around climate-smart development in Asia.

The authors argue that further research is needed to

explore the mechanisms that lead to revolutionary

changes in current energy structures, economic devel-

opment regimes, and human behaviors for climate-

smart development in Asia.

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In summary, this book provides a comprehensive

and detailed primer to climate-smart development. It

covers all critical aspects of LCE and attempts to

integrate both market- and technology-based solutions

into a comprehensive approach for achieving LCE and

climate resilience in Asia. With contributions from

nearly 30 authors, the book is well written and

structured. Most of the contributors are seasoned

researchers in their respective research fields. They

have done a commendable job in their selection of

nations as examples for discussing strategies, policies,

and challenges useful to reducing GHG emissions for

LCE. However, Section III might have been made

better connected by swapping Chapters 10 (hydro-

power) and 11 (biofuel) with Chapters 8 (financing)

and 9 (enabling), since Chapters 10 and 11 are more in

line with reducing GHG emissions as presented in

Chapter 7 (which describes CCS technology). The

book should be particularly useful for policymakers,

scientists, researchers, and students in the fields of

low-carbon economy, clean and renewable energy,

climate change mitigation and adaptation, and sus-

tainable development in Asia as well as globally.

Acknowledgments We like to thank Louis Iverson for

reviewing and editing this book review.

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