Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Climate Impact & Sustainability Data (2018)
Reporting Period: 2018
Environmental Metrics
Total Carbon Emissions:2.9 Gt CO2 (2018)
ESG Focus Areas
- Climate Change
- Sustainable Development
Environmental Achievements
- ATO reference scenario projects transport CO2 emissions in Asia to be just below 4 Gt by 2050, an improvement over earlier scenarios.
Social Achievements
- Improved access to transport through infrastructure development (although still short of SDG targets)
- Initiatives to integrate informal public transport into modern systems
Governance Achievements
- Increased policy alignment between transport and climate change goals in some countries (e.g., Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Nepal, PRC)
Climate Goals & Targets
Long-term Goals:
- Net-zero emissions in the transport sector by 2050-2070
Medium-term Goals:
- Significant progress towards net-zero emissions in the transport sector by 2030-2035
Short-term Goals:
- Peak transport emissions in Asia by 2030 or shortly thereafter
Environmental Challenges
- Rapid growth of the transport sector in Asia, making decarbonization more difficult
- Underdeveloped transport policy landscape in many Asian countries
- Lack of quantified emissions reduction targets in many LTS and NDC documents
- Vulnerability of public transport to external shocks (e.g., pandemics)
- Challenges in shifting modal share from road to rail
- Difficulties in decarbonizing aviation and shipping
- Potential for stranded assets in fossil fuel transportation
- Insufficient knowledge on transport sector and impact of investments on CO2 emissions
- Need for substantial policy and regulatory action at national and local levels
- Limited institutional and capacity development in transport and related ministries
- Current funding and finance mechanisms geared towards road transport
- Need for financial incentives for electric vehicles and charging infrastructure
Mitigation Strategies
- Avoid-Shift-Improve approach to decarbonization
- Compact city development
- Economic instruments (congestion charging, fossil fuel subsidy reform, carbon tax)
- Reducing growth of vehicle ownership
- Shift towards active mobility (walking, cycling)
- Shift towards public transport (rail, bus rapid transit)
- Shift towards shared mobility
- Shift from road to rail transport
- Fuel efficiency measures
- Transition to zero-emission vehicles
- Electrifying railways
- Decarbonizing aviation (sustainable aviation fuels)
- Decarbonizing shipping (green ammonia, green hydrogen)
- Accelerated technological and policy research
- Effective monitoring and reporting
- Coordinated policy frameworks
- Revised funding and financial structure
- New role for development cooperation
Supply Chain Management
Climate-Related Risks & Opportunities
Reporting Standards
Frameworks Used: Paris Agreement, SDGs
UN Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy)
- SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure)
- SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities)
- SDG 13 (Climate Action)
The report details how various initiatives contribute to these goals through reduced emissions, improved transport infrastructure, sustainable urban development, and climate action.