Letters | Investors have their pick as Asia’s firms go for green prosperity

The notion that the developing world should get rich first and then go green is increasingly nonsensical. Unabated climate change severely threatens rainfall patterns, water tables and the ecological services society depends upon. An economy simply cannot deliver a high living standard while also battling a chronic water scarcity or routine crop failures.

The truth is that emerging markets will have to follow a development path different from that once trod by today’s wealthy countries. It is the only path that is open to emerging markets that will raise the standard of living in the long term. In practice, this means using technology to leapfrog development stages.

While western Europe is only now shifting aggressively towards renewable energy in the form of wind and solar power, the likes of India, Malaysia and Thailand can – and must – make the same shift at a far earlier point in their development.

For Hong Kong’s investment community, this means the exciting prospect of tapping into businesses that are embedding sustainability into their mission from the outset and catalysing sustainable development across the region. Many home-grown companies in Asia’s emerging markets are tackling climate change problems with innovative and promising solutions. Investors have an exciting opportunity to be part of their stories.

This is especially true as companies benefiting from a shift to a more sustainable development path can expect to experience greater growth tailwinds while taking fewer risks than those threatened by such a shift.