• Overview

Venue: C asean, Bangkok, Thailand

SWITCH-Asia Event website: https://www.switch-asia.eu/events/transforming-asia-pacific-innovative-solutions-circular-economy-and-low-carbon-lifestyles/

Activities organised during this week are funded by the European Union’s SWITCH-Asia Regional Policy Advocacy.

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Transforming Asia Pacific: Innovative Solutions, Circular Economy and Low Carbon Lifestyles is a week-long event that brings together governments leaders, experts, private sector and civil society organizations in a series of events focused on a demand driven shift to greener products and services, and a resource efficient Asia. The two types of consumption will be addressed: individual consumption as influenced by lifestyles, and public procurement which accounts for at 30% or more of consumption in many countries.

Consumption patterns are changing rapidly in the Asia-Pacific region. While this has been an economic growth success story, it has come at an environmental cost: high resource use, fast growing greenhouse gas emissions, and rising amounts of plastic waste.  

We can do better going forward.  To meet the scale of the sustainability challenges facing the region, policies and businesses must move from incremental improvement towards systemic strategies that change the consumption behavior and lifestyle of individual consumers, with the public sector leading the way. 

Businesses and governments must apply innovative solutions.  Major innovative ‘disruptions’ to our consumption patterns are already underway with an explosion of innovations in business under Industry 4.0 and share economy models.  Policy makers are also leading the charge with ambitious action on plastic waste and carbon. 

Decision makers need our support. Civil society actors can share their expectations on low carbon goals, and support the transition.  Academia, youth and faith based groups are already showing the way, sharing, learning to sustain our natural resources and further transform change for a resource efficient Asia.