07 Oct 2021

The Asia-Pacific region trade collaboration is key to a sustainable future

Guest Blog: Joachim Brandt, Head of Electric and Autonomous Vehicles Strategy at Gemserv, explains why collaboration is at the heart of leveraging the APAC region as an important trading hub to deliver innovation and emerging technologies

The UK is aspiring to play a leading role in addressing climate change by accelerating the transition towards a low carbon economy.  Collaboration is at the heart of leveraging the APAC region as an important trading hub to deliver innovation and emerging technologies that are critical to the advancement of a more sustainable future.

The UK is committed to achieve net zero by 2050 and will stop the sales of fossil fuel vehicles as early as 2030.  This ambition has significant impact on the UK industry and business but also requires a step change in our trading relations among the economies of the APAC region and the ability to rewrite the supply chains needed for the products and services in this space of cleaner energy and transport.

Transport remains one of the biggest polluter and emitter of greenhouse gasses and while the global trend towards electric vehicles and low carbon technologies represents a silver lining to mitigating the threads from climate change, the scale of the task is immense in delivering the societal change urgently needed. The clock on climate change is ticking and it cannot easily reset.

  • Global supply chains need to be re-arranged and new industries need to spin up quickly.
  • Innovation needs to be fast tracked into global markets that are primed to scale up new products and services fast as part of collaborative trade agreements.
  • Routes to market need to be well understood and supported by polices that enable  coordinated efforts across jurisdictions.

The transition to cleaner transport, in particular the large-scale migration towards electric vehicles requires a joined-up thinking approach to deliver the wealth of advanced new products and services supported by a national infrastructure. This refers to the choice of technologies and standards needed to deploy EV charging networks and driving the integration of critical national infrastructure through advanced digital services.

While the electrification of transport is high on the agenda today, the move towards autonomous vehicles and the inherent digital capability required has also made considerable advancement.

No doubt, digital services will play a pivotal role in delivering the modernisation of critical national infrastructures in energy and transport. These services will operate across jurisdiction with clear roles and responsibilities to be agreed among collaborating trading partners.

The UK and the advanced economies of the APAC region are ideally positioned to deliver a sustainable future through the technological advancements and societal changes, as part of a collaborative economic initiative that has become an existential necessity.

It is of paramount importance for all parties to take a longer-term strategic view in consolidating the trading relations needed to expedite the transition to clean energy and transport that will benefit us all.

 

About Gemserv

Gemserv is an expert provider of professional services in a world driven by data and technology. We are recognised by The Financial Times as one of the UK's Leading Management Consultants for 2021. We work with a wide range of organisations to facilitate the transition to electric vehicles through evidence-based project delivery. Our experts are highly focused on providing a route to market for innovation and advise on commercially viable solutions that deliver business continuity as we move away from fossil fuels. Gemserv is working across industry sectors to deliver projects critical to the uptake of electric vehicles, the provision of national charging infrastructure and services for business and the public alike.