Asia's mega-cities need clean energy drive

Avoiding threats from climate change and pollution will require Asia's booming cities to become much more efficient in their use of energy resources, delegates at a city development conference said on Thursday.

Asia is home to 15 out of the world's 20 biggest cities, and the United Nations estimates another 2.5 billion people will live in cities by 2050, by far the most in Asia.

This growth caused serious pollution problems and will challenge transport networks, food supply chains, and energy supplies, the delegates said. "Cities occupy 2 to 3 percent of our planet's surface, yet they consume 70 percent of all energy," said Soren Kvorning, President for Asia Pacific at Danfoss, a Danish engineering firm with a strong focus on Asia.

"The longer we wait, the higher the cost will be," he said, adding there were three key improvement areas: building efficiency, cold chains for food supplies and a transition away from fossil fuels in transport.

Transportation is the biggest contributor to air pollution, which as per the World Health Organisation estimates kills 4.2 million people every year.

In most cities, buildings are the biggest energy consumers, making investment into better energy efficiency important. "Efficiency measures all come back with a return on investment within 2 to 4 years, at current technologies," he said.

To improve efficiency, Ang Kian Seng, Director for Environmental Sustainability at Singapore's Building and Construction Authority, said the government had last year launched a "super low energy programme" to cut emissions as far as possible.

One of the biggest problems is the scope of the problems, the delegates said, with Asian cities - several of which have populations of over 20 million - struggling to provide enough housing, electricity, food and infrastructure.

Still, change is happening, delegates said, with most major Asian cities now having sustainability plans, with credit readily available. "There is more capital available for sustainable solutions than there are projects.

We will see quite a lot of change soon," said Nicolas Parrot, Asia Pacific Head of Transportation Investment at French bank BNP Paribas.