Introduction: Pathways to a sustainable economy

Abstract

The purpose of this volume, as articulated in the title and under the aims and objectives presented in this introductory chapter, is indeed unique with respect to making a case of promoting sustainable use of resources and bring down pollution targets keeping the COP21 agenda in Paris in mind. It is now established that climate change has affected every continent, from the equator to the poles, from the mountains to the coasts. The many kinds of extremes that climate change has contributed so far are heat waves, heavy rain and untimely floods, wildfires, drought and melting ice and snow contributing to sea level rise. This volume is based on a conference held in Brisbane, Australia in November 2016-1 year on from COP21. The main objective of this conference was to identify the key issues that need to be addressed in order for nations to achieve their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) proposed at COP21. With this in mind, this volume has focused on how one can add further to the present debate on emission control globally involving both developed and developing nations of the Asia-Pacific. This introductory chapter gets the debate to a level where it will be clear to readers how the aims and objectives of the volume can be achieved. The focus of this volume, thus, is on identifying solutions to the challenges facing governments, businesses and civil society from countries in the Asia-Pacific region in meeting mitigation targets. In other words, the aims are to: offer critical perspectives on the COP21 agreement and the challenges of meeting the targets; offer solutions to challenges of achieving a sustainable economy using climate change mitigation as a driver for change; and provide cases in Australia and Asia that can exemplify how such challenges can be faced. The overall outcome of the volume suggests that there are considerable challenges for nations to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement in 2015. In this volume, the efforts of the contributors were to analyse how to bridge the gap between COP21 commitments and targets of emissions control while employing an interdisciplinary approach.