Challenges and Opportunities for Better Environment

Abstract

Generally speaking, Asia is under rapid transition from agriculture societies into industrial economies, though some countries like Japan are already among developed ones (Figure 3.1). Such transitions, featured by urbanization and industrialization, have continuously shaped regional environment for 20–30 years, and will likely last for another half century or so. It is unrealistic to expect major changes of development modes and environment impacts in the near future, and therefore, Asia environment will likely continue to get worse in coming years, despite of improvements in some areas. The economic standard of most Asia developing countries have not yet reached the turning points of so-called Environmental Kuznets Curve (See Box 3.1), which means that they will have to struggle for a difficult balance between economic growth and environmental quality for a long period.

Keywords

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.