"I don't think Asia is quite ready for green growth in terms of capacity and tools," said Dr. Myung-Ja Kim, South Korea's former minister of Environment, during a recent interview with China.org.cn in Xi'an, the capital city of southwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Dr. Myung-Ja Kim, South Korea's former minister of Environment [Photo: Guo Xiaohong / China.org.cn]

Dr. Kim was in China for the just concluded special conference of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), themed "Promote Green Development and Build a Beautiful Asia Together."

"Asia has many obstacles to cope with in moving towards a green economy, including poor development conditions and a lack of necessary social infrastructure such as legislations and technology for green economy and green industry," said Dr. Kim.

Asia's development is lagging far behind in many ways, compared with Western countries. Asia has 61 percent of world's total population, yet 1.5 billion people in the region do not have proper access to electricity. The wealth gap is also widening rapidly.

The region faces three challenges in development: Water scarcity, energy deficiency and food shortage, Kim explained. In 25 years, Asia will face serious water scarcity problems as its fresh water supply will have decreased by two thirds at that point.