Indicators for a resource efficient and green Asia and the Pacific

This report paints a clear picture of the path taken by the countries in the region over the past 40 years in their resource use. Today, the region dominates global resource use, comprising more than 50 per cent and consumption is rapidly rising as economies grow, infrastructure is built and the middle class expands. But even accounting for economic growth, resource efficiency in the region lags far behind the rest of the world, and varies dramatically between countries. As an illustration, developing countries in the region use an average of 5kg of resources for every dollar they produce, ten times that used by industrialized countries. This begs the question of where we should seek the fastest and best improvements in efficiency and where the Asia Pacific region can find the "low-hanging fruit" to achieve resource efficiency in this high-tech age.