Venkatachalam Anbumozhi, director of Research Strategy and Innovation at the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia:

Past climate actions of developing and emerging economies in the Asia-Pacific region have entailed progressive bottom-up low-carbon initiatives that provide incremental co-benefits. As countries move toward long-term deep decarbonization and circular net-zero economy, the pandemic recovery and stimulus packages offer a rare opportunity to realign the environment, energy, innovation, trade and fiscal policies into macroeconomic planning and national budgets. This will require the crowding-in of much higher levels of private finance and investments in technology development.