Green mega-projects sorely needed in Asia, ADB report finds

“Asia’s urbanisation is historically unprecedented in scale, speed and pattern, and this trend will continue and can pose enormous challenges, including environmental degradation,” Changyong Rhee, chief economist of the ADB, said at the launch of the “Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2012: Green Urbanisation in Asia” report.
According to the report, since the 1980s, Asia has been urbanising faster than anywhere else, with the region already home to almost half of the world’s city dwellers. In just over a decade, it will be home to 21 of 37 mega-cities worldwide, and over 30 years 1.1 billion more people are expected to join Asia’s already swollen urban ranks.
This breakneck expansion has been accompanied by a sharp rise in pollution and slums and widening economic and social inequalities, which are causing rapid environmental degradation.
Particularly disturbing are urban carbon-dioxide emissions, which if left unchecked under a business-as-usual scenario could reach 10.2 tonnes per capita by 2050 – a level that would have disastrous consequences not just for Asia but for the world.
Rising urban populations mean that more than 400 million people in Asian cities may be at risk of coastal flooding and roughly 350 million at risk of inland flooding by 2025. Unless properly managed, these trends could lead to widespread environmental degradation and declining standards of living, the report warned.
One of the challenges is how to get adequate financing for green initiatives, such as mass transit, drainage systems, clean energy and other infrastructure projects.
“Policy-makers should re-prioritise their spending … governments should collect more tax revenue by increasing the efficiency of tax collection,” Rhee said.
The “world value survey 2007” suggests that more highly educated people are more willing to sacrifice economic growth and income, pay higher taxes and support regulation, to get a better-quality environment.
Transparency will also make people want to pay more taxes to support environmentally friendly projects, he said.
Adis Israngkura, from the School of Development Economics of the National Institute of Development Administration, said the report was relevant to Thailand.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration should introduce a capital-gains tax, as landowners are benefiting from the rise in the value of their property due to mass-transit and road projects, he said.
“Financing infrastructure projects in Bangkok should come from the taxes paid by Bangkok residents, not from the government’s central budget.”
Bangkok residents are benefiting a lot from appreciation of their land after the devastating floods last year, while people living in satellite cities have suffered.
Land prices in Bangkok were partly boosted by both central and local governments protecting the capital from floods last year, while property owners have paid not a single baht to compensate flood victims living in nearby cities.
The government’s clean-energy policy gives too much incentive to solar and wind energy plants that lead to imports of foreign technology, Adis said.
“The government should promote the use of local materials such as swine and chicken droppings to make biogas energy.”