Developing Asia has continued to perform well, even as recovery in the major industrial economies remains weak. The region is forecast to expand by 5.7% in 2017 and 2018, nearly the 5.8% growth achieved in 2016. Decades of rapid growth transformed developing Asia from a low-income region to middle income.

India is clearly far along in the nutrition transition. This paper shows that there have been rapid increases in the proportion of adult women in India who are overweight and obese: these increases are seen not just in urban but in rural areas as well, and there are regional specificities.

Urban road infrastructure is crucial in determining air pollution. Yet, little is known about the roles played by road width vs. road length. This paper attempts to fill this gap by estimating the effects of road infrastructure on 10-micron particulate matter (PM10) using city-level data from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Ecological complexity and diverse ecosystems give Central and West Asia rich natural resources and hydrocarbon reserves. Countries in this region are exposed to climate change risks, and there is growing recognition that their carbon-intensive economies necessitate greenhouse gas mitigation.

In Asia and the Pacific extreme income poverty remains widespread. This analysis of trends and highlighted good practices provides useful input into regional and global dialogues.

Examining the SDGs goal by goal shows that governments will confront many common and fundamental challenges as they work to advance sustainable development. This report examines each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and describes the outlook for achieving each one in the Asia-Pacific region.

Developing Asia will need to invest $1.7 trillion per year in infrastructure until 2030 to maintain its growth momentum, tackle poverty, and respond to climate change. This report examines developing Asia’s infrastructure—defined as transport, power, telecommunications, water supply and sanitation.

Sustainable land management practices can be enhanced by reconciling environmental and development objectives while incorporating climate resilience. A growing international consensus indicates a need to look at the bigger picture and not just treat sectors selectively and independently.

With increased emphasis on reducing emissions from the power sector, grid-level energy storage can enable larger penetration of renewable energy into the grid. Grid-level energy storage is likely to dominate the conversation in the power industry in the coming years, just like renewable energy dominated the conversation in the past 2 decades.

This paper examines the impact of global sea level rise (SLR) on the economic growth, migration, and tourism from various empirical studies and consolidates several sea level projections by 2100 under different scenarios.