Organisation:
Temasek, World Economic Forum, AlphaBeta
Resource Link:
New Nature Economy: Asia’s Next Wave
Published in 2021, Link
My Key Takeaways
I regularly meet European and UK founders who care deeply about sustainability, but struggle prioritising resources and justifying the business case to their board and investors.
Sharing some takeaways from a report by Temasek, World Economic Forum (WEF) and AlphaBeta to help us learn together and better tackle the complex and systemic problem of climate change in Asia Pacific (APAC):
550 million new people would be added to cities in APAC between 2019-2030. That’s nearly a million people each week, and the total delta would be around 75% of Europe’s entire population!
APAC risks losing 63% of its gross domestic product (US$19.5 trillion) from biodiversity and nature loss– a higher share than the global average due to significant economic contributions of sectors that are highly dependent on nature, including food and agriculture.
This is akin to your family losing almost two thirds of your monthly salary because of nature-negative practices in your region!
The report aims to quantify 59 nature-positive business opportunities that could be worth a total of US$4.3 trillion in 2030, sorted according to:
1) Top 10 nature-positive business opportunities across APAC [exhibit 5]
2) APAC geographies (China, India, high income versus low & middle income APAC countries) [exhibit 7]
3) Three system-level categories: I) Food, land and ocean use, II) Infrastructure and the built Environment III) Energy and extractives [exhibit 8, 9, 10]
A five-step science-based framework to kickstart awareness of the nature-positivity of your business [exhibit 14]
As important as it is to decarbonise the economy, it is not enough if the other direct drivers of biodiversity and nature loss are not tackled concurrently.
For example, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and first-generation biofuels could have adverse impacts on nature as both involve growing additional crops which require more land, water, fertilisers etc.
Nature-positive business seek to ADD natural capital back to nature relative to a business-as-usual trajectory (agro-forestry, natural systems for water supply, mine rehabilitation, etc), but may or may not contribute to decarbonisation directly.
Industry 4.0 technologies play an important role in enabling 80% of business opportunities identified (Pg 54)
That’s why Singapore is also partnering the World Economic Forum to drive adoption of the Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) to help industry measure, benchmark and prioritise progress in their I4.0 transformation.
Hope the above sharing helps your company prioritise the most important sustainability problems to focus on in APAC, that also present the greatest growth opportunity for your nature-positive business.
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Feel free to share your thoughts on other resources that can help our European community of sustainability companies out there with their business case and market access plans for Asia!
My LinkedIn post here.
About Zhilin SIM
Having worked and lived in Singapore, the Nordics, China, Spain, UK, I’m now based in Paris.
I’m fluent in English, French and Mandarin, and I’m learning Arabic because it’s a beautiful and fascinating language.
My team creates and supports one-many initiatives connecting Corporate and Startup ecosystems in Europe to business and innovation opportunities in Singapore and Southeast Asia.
I’m passionate about horticulture, watercolour, startups/tech as well as French cuisine, Peranakan kueh techniques and other global cuisines.
Feel free to connect with me if you think my network in Europe and Asia could be of benefit to your business and innovation activities.
