The virtual seventh Asia-Pacific Climate change Adaptation Forum was jointly hosted by the Ministry of the Surroundings of Japan and the Asia Pacific Accommodation Network with the theme "Enabling Resilience for All: The Critical Decade to Scale-up Action." The forum took place in March and was held to formulate national adaptation planning for science and engineering, and energy and financial policies that consider the interlinkages between climate change, health and biodiversity.

These nature- and ecosystem-based policies volition serve as the footing for the Asia-Pacific region's contributions to the Leaders Height on Climate in the U.s.a.; the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Kunming, Mainland china; and the United nations Climate Alter Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for lx% of the global population (around 4.three billion people). It has the earth'due south fastest-rising economies, which are supported past innovations in engineering science and cryptocurrency that are energy-intensive. This results in the highest growth in electricity generation, fueled predominantly (85%) by fossil fuels.

Three out of the six largest carbon dioxide-emitting countries in the world — China, India and Japan — are in the Asia-Pacific region, an expanse that produces nearly one-half of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. As a event, the region is also increasingly impacted by extreme weather events.

With 2020 witnessing the COVID-nineteen pandemic and beingness the warmest yr on record, there is an urgent need to decouple economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions in order to transition the Asia-Pacific region toward carbon neutrality. A few countries in the Asia-Pacific region — including Nihon, South korea, Bhutan, Republic of the fiji islands, the Republic of the maldives, the Marshall Islands and Nepal — take alleged their aim to exist carbon neutral by 2050; and China has set its target as 2060. These commitments are incorporated in their nationally adamant contributions.

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A newly released International monetary fund departmental newspaper makes financial policy recommendations for the region focused in three areas:

  • Increment in the use of carbon taxes
  • Increase in the ability to accommodate to climate change;
  • Increase pandemic spending for greener activities.

These recommendations are aimed at addressing climate change in the Asia-Pacific region.

Turning digital technology innovation into climate activity in the Asia-Pacific region

With the COVID-19 pandemic, industrial digitalization has entered a new phase of explosive development.

Houlin Zhao, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Marriage — which organizes events and publishes reports to enhance sensation around the role of frontier technologies with regard to the environment, climate change and the round economy — explained:

"Today, we are faced with not ane just two deep transformations. The outset one, driven past emerging technologies such every bit artificial intelligence, blockchain, the Net of Things, 5G and many others, is changing how governments, businesses and individuals will deed in this new century. As for the second transformation, climate change, it disrupts ecosystems, jeopardizing biodiversity, food and water security and the time to come of life on our planet. The question for us is whether humanity tin turn this digital revolution into climate action and, most chiefly, whether we tin can do it earlier it is too late."

As Zhao continues: "With more and more people coming online, more information being generated and more devices connecting to the network, the digital ecosystem'southward carbon footprint is growing."

The Asia-Pacific region boasts tremendous potential, owing to the growing prominence of mobile payments and the development of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, in countries such as Australia, Cathay, Republic of india, Nippon, Singapore, S Korea and others. Red china'southward Blockchain-based Service Network is developing a global network that will support future CBDCs from multiple countries.

Related: How the digital yuan stablecoin impacts crypto in China: Experts answer

The adoption of 5G engineering science is a catalyst for the implementation of blockchain to amend scalability and interoperability. And China'due south Huawei and ZTE; Republic of korea's Samsung and LG Electronics; and Japan's Sony and NEC are leading the way in 5G technology.

Huawei was the globe's get-go company to offer 5G technology and ranks number one equally a global telecommunication equipment maker. Nevertheless, the United States is restricting the visitor'southward access to American technology that is central to producing modern 5G handsets and new 5G-capable mobile telecommunications infrastructure. Every bit a effect, the visitor has seen its market share decline outside China.

This has also had a spillover effect on blockchain technology adoption, which enables telecommunications infrastructure to meet unprecedented service-level requirements past bolstering operations, information sharing and client identity verification, and detecting telecom fraud. According to Denian Shi, deputy master engineer of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the development of the global blockchain manufacture saw reduced investment/financing and cooled downwardly during 2019 and 2020.

The role of digitalization has become fundamental to continued economical and societal activity and to lessening the pandemic's touch. According to recent reports, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to contribute about 19.3% of the overall global spending on blockchain technology, fueled past increased investments by the fintech sector. Integration of biometrics in smartphones amid the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to grow blockchain-based digital identity solutions past 21% annually.

The ever-increasing demand for connectivity and bandwidth by billions of devices in the region has made it important for wireless networks, blockchain platforms and computing devices to limit the total communications energy consumption and associated carbon footprint. With 5G being commercially deployed worldwide, LG Electronics and Huawei have already begun working toward launching 6G networks, which will be "50 times faster than 5G" in spectrum efficiency, positioning capabilities and mobility. Studies testify that 6G could provide energy self-sustainability to the massive so-called "Internet of Everything," with blockchain engineering science cardinal to addressing significant challenges.

The world's summit solar energy adoption is in the Asia-Pacific region

The free energy sector is the world'due south number-i pollutant, accounting for 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. With energy demands continuously increasing — pushing CO2 emissions to their highest levels in history — methods of generating big quantities of make clean energy take go a survival concern for the Asia-Pacific region. As a event, the region has shifted its focus to the decarbonization of the grid and the production of electricity from renewable energy. During March solitary, 65 new renewable power plant contracts were announced in the region, and nigh 80% of these plants are solar.

China leads the world as the top producer of solar free energy, seeking to transform its industrial construction, economy and society with disruptive innovation in the next-generation photovoltaic module for world and infinite applications. Bharat ranks second, Nihon third and Vietnam fourth in the region. Three out of these four countries are also conducting research on space-based solar power and ability beaming as a solution for the region's transition toward carbon neutrality, with Nippon and China emerging equally international leaders in this area.

Recently, the U.Southward. Naval Research Laboratory conducted its Photovoltaic Radiofrequency Antenna Module Flight Experiment, or PRAM-FX, to transform solar power into radio frequency microwave energy aboard the U.S. Infinite Force'south X-37B robotic space plane. According to Paul Jaffe, innovation power beaming and infinite solar portfolio pb at NRL, PRAM-FX is a 12-inch (30.5 centimeters) square tile that collects solar free energy and converts it to microwave power, but does not beam it anywhere. Instead, the experiment gauges the performance of sunlight-to-microwave conversion.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the writer's lonely and practise not necessarily reflect or correspond the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Selva Ozelli, Esq., CPA, is an international taxation attorney and certified public accountant who frequently writes about revenue enhancement, legal and accounting issues for Tax Notes, Bloomberg BNA, other publications and the OECD.