From an equivocal 2023 to an uncertain 2024, hopes and glimmers through the smog
Greetings fellow earthlings,
As 2023 closes against a backdrop of numerous uncertainties - ongoing wars, looming economic troubles, and the warmest year on record, demonstrating an insidiously warming climate, to mention a few - it is hard to stay upbeat, but we remain positive in our outlook for 2024. We see championing change as an ever increasing priority as the persistence of the status quo leads to a growing number of unequivocal threats and tangible harm that started to seriously creep in.
Although we hope for 2024 to be a year of resolute progress, the new normal may be one that is of constant strain, unsavoury surprises and more adaptation required from us. We believe that the optimal approach involves adapting to lead through change in the right direction.
Here are some of our time-based predictions:
Renewable adoption will ever increase and accelerate.
The political landscape of South and South-East Asia, steeped in the ambitions of leading powers, will increasingly be acknowledged as a distinct political agenda separate from the establishment. However, it will continue to be contentious as countries gradually move away from their reliance on coal, oil, and gas heavy energy mixes.
Collaboration through import-export agreements of renewable energy will push targets and plans for larger implementations forward.
Innovative Wind and Solar technologies, emerging in unexpected places and employing novel methods for harnessing renewable energy, will begin to expand at the edges of larger implementations. The yields from these will continue to set new records.
Larger Hydrogen plants will launch in 2024 in the region. Distribution and utilisation will still remain an issue. Shipping and port investment towards decarbonisation will showcase positive momentum with a clearer appreciation of the immense challenge and opportunity ahead. With luck, a plan for credible DAC (Direct-Air-Capture) plants and their implementations including financing and infrastructure upgrades will happen this year.
Software Energy efficiency solutions will hit their targeted large improvements. Coupled with AI development, this will bring another wave of incremental improvements to models bringing us close to our general theoretical targets. However, adoption and scale of those solutions will still lag behind what we would need to get to. Operational processes and manufacturing process changes will become the main focus and way forward to achieve our targets of doubling efficiencies in the region.
Energy storage solutions will keep expanding, yet the dependence on Lithium will become more strained, leading to different chemical approaches emerging as key in our shift away from greenhouse gas-heavy alternative solutions.
Breakthroughs in Regenerative agriculture and adoption of Soil-focused ways will start the hard battle of fighting the mono-culture, larger fields and consolidation of land implementations. Across the region, this renewed interest for a human and carbon-friendly path will yield commendable results for small farmers' production and even higher impact on through newly formed carbon-sinks
Circularity design will commence a steep transformation of work in every product we consume, commencing via heavy industries and then taking hold into consumer goods segments like single-use plastics and petrochemical industries.
In the field of textiles, significant advancements will be made in materials used, but more crucially, during the manufacturing process, moving towards less toxic, more organic, and environmentally friendly products. This shift will require major consumer brands to adopt these changes more rapidly due to increasing demand.
Electric transport solutions will continue scaling, touching every transport niche in the region. More importantly, with the adoption of 2 and 3 wheelers solutions will not only reduce urban pollution but also reduce noise pollution in our streets. New EVs coming to markets like freight and last-mile optimisation solutions will contribute unequivocally to the lowering of transport emissions as well.
Scope 3 "enlightenment" through more data transparency is already on the way, but will be accelerated in the next decade to come. More data will be created for Western and more specifically European customers. Large Investors and banks will also push through more differentiation of investment terms based on how much data will be shared from projects and companies on their ESG status and progress for transition.
Carbon Credit markets will not only survive but thrive again at the wake of contention, attracting more scrutiny, transparency and larger, more credible players. Some challenging scandals related to abuse and dubious carbon sink projects will unfortunately still happen, given the current nascent status of the market.
Progress in ESG data, especially in the Environmental and Biodiversity sectors, will be notable, with the development and adoption of solutions and standards becoming increasingly tangible. However, the accuracy of reporting and models, along with real-time data, will continue to be an unresolved issue.
The close-knit network focused on Climate transformation will remain a constant source of hope and inspiration; ever present for collaboration and represented by concrete agreements. Plus a throng of new entrants, namely larger, agnostic VC Funds will enable the foundational Climate networks to get more help and attention.
South and Southeast Asia’s focus on catching up to its own tardiness towards a green future will start to see some sparkles of hope, yet innovation leadership will take a backseat unless major global and regional changes take shape.
Realistic or widely utopian, those predictions are, by default, wishful and sometimes that is just what we need.
Wishing you all the best of 2024 wishes to all.