After huge success in Singapore in 2023, our Asia Action Summit is back for another year. This time around, we’re in Seoul, South Korea for our one-day flagship event focused on Powering Green Growth in Asia.
Continuing last year’s discussions, we’ll be focusing on two of the region’s biggest net zero opportunities – the decarbonisation of steel, and the clean energy transition. Asia and the Pacific account for more than half the world’s energy consumption, primarily being met by fossil fuels. Four of the top five fossil fuel importing countries are based in Asia.
Home to much of the world’s supply chain, the region has a huge opportunity to drive decarbonisation and low carbon products. The steel sector drives much of the region’s fossil fuel demand. With some 70% of global steel produced in the region, Asia’s steelmaking accounts for over 5.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions every year. Asia is critical to driving the global steel industry’s net zero transition and our efforts to achieve net zero by 2050.
Like much of the rest of the world, countries across Asia stand at a crossroads. There is a huge opportunity before them to grasp the transition to net zero and really lead the way. Progress is being made in countries like China, which is the undisputed global leader in installed renewable capacity. The transition to renewables will allow Asia’s steelmakers to shift away from traditional coal-fired blast furnaces to meet the rapidly growing demand for green steel.
The industry and energy transitions really are two sides of the same coin, but for both steel and renewable electricity, more must be done to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and South Korea all committed to the COP28 pledge of tripling renewables and doubling energy efficiency every year by 2030. To achieve their far-reaching climate goals and take advantage of the economic opportunities within the energy transition, policies that support decarbonisation need to be fast-tracked.
To help accelerate this vital transition, we’re bringing together business leaders, policy makers, financiers and decision takers from the region, including subnational leaders from across our Under2 Coalition and business members affiliated with our renewable energy (RE100) and green steel initiatives (SteelZero). We will use our second Asia Action Summit to build on the success of the first edition, drive innovation and impactful decisions, and create a springboard to accelerate action and meaningful change in the region.
