On 20 April 2022, Mr. Guo Chuanwei, Director of the Trade and Investment Division (TID) of the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), attended the East Asia Forum (EAF) 2022 online.

The forum was co-hosted by the East Asia Department (EARD) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). Mr. Ahmed M. Saeed, Vice President of Asian Development Bank, Mr. Tetsushi Sonobe, the Dean of Asian Development Bank Institute and Mr. Li Gao, Director-General of the Department of Climate Change, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, attended and addressed the forum.

Mr. Ahmed M. Saeed expressed that decarbonization in Asia and the Pacific is one of the key programmes for ADB. A massive capital inflow and job offers can be expected in East Asia, which will create important development opportunities for countries in the region. As a regional knowledge sharing initiative, ADB will actively provide assistance and development knowledge to Asian countries, and promote the integration of decarbonisation into economic development models and lifestyles.

Mr. Tetsushi Sonobe mentioned that all the governments at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference agreed on more support for developing countries to achieve the recovery of sustainable green economy. Under the influence of adverse factors such as the continuous spread of COVID-19 and inflation, the financial supply of green energy has been compressed. We urgently need to recover from the pandemic and face the challenges together to meet the 2050 net zero emissions target.

Mr. Li Gao said that China attaches great significance to ecological and environmental protection, which has been included in the overall construction of ecological civilisation of the country, and has promised to achieve carbon neutrality goal by 2060. Chinese government has set up lists for transformation in agriculture, construction and other sectors. National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People’s Republic of China and other departments have clarified the roadmap and transformation catalogs. Relevant state-owned banks have also launched frameworks for debt and loan products to support the goal of achieving carbon neutrality.

Under the theme of “Decarbonsing Asia and the Pacific: Experience from East Asia”, the forum aimed to promote East Asia’s innovative solutions to climate change and decarbonisation, and help Asian developing countries in carving their own net-zero pathways.