Climate change has become one of the hottest topics across the Asia Pacific but national and personal wealth remain the overwhelmingly dominant concerns, economists and environmentalists say.
"In Asia, people are becoming more aware about global warming, but economic development is still by far the top priority," said Andy Xie, a Shanghai-based economist and former head of Morgan Stanley's Asia Pacific division.
On a macro level, the roaring economies of the world's two most populous nations, China and India, are using ever increasing amounts of coal and other fossil fuels that emit the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change.
Smaller nations such as Vietnam, which is particularly vulnerable to climate change thanks to its long swathe of low-lying coastline and sensitive wetlands, is similarly developing a ferocious appetite for fossil fuels.
And while efforts are being made to introduce renewable technologies and improve energy efficiency across the Asia Pacific, other trends show an inexorable rise in the region's carbon footprint as it modernises.
In Beijing alone, around 1,300 new cars a day are jamming the city's streets - belching out more greenhouse gases - in an astounding expansion of the auto industry that is being mirrored across the country and other parts of Asia.
Air travel is also soaring exponentially in China and elsewhere, while sales of televisions and other energy-hungry gadgets continue apace as Asians pursue lifestyles enjoyed by many in the West for decades. "If countries like China and India keep going like this, the consequences will be enormous," said Greenpeace's climate and energy campaign manager for China, Yang Ailun.
Meanwhile, Indonesia - host of next week's United Nations conference that aims to launch a global roadmap for action on climate change - remains the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.
Its emissions largely stem from a different source, the massive destruction of its carbon-storing rainforests and peatlands to make way for farm plantations and quench the global thirst for timber.
Rainforests elsewhere in Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia and Myanmar, are similarly being destroyed. Even in Japan, Asia's richest country that has taken a global lead in curbing greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012, there are concerns not enough is being done.
Under the Kyoto pact, Japan committed to cut emissions to six percent below 1990 levels, but its output remains eight percent above.
"The government has discussed a lot but it has not taken effective measures to cut actual greenhouse gas emissions," said Kimiko Hirata, director of Japanese environmental group Kiko Network.
Hirata praised one government initiative, a law under which companies were required to produce more energy-efficient home appliances. "But it is pointless if you use two or three efficient air-conditioners at the same time," she said.
At the UN conference in Bali, developing countries will continue to push the onus onto rich nations for the fight against global warming, quite rightly, according to Xie, the economist and many environment campaigners.
Xie pointed to the United States and Australia being among the top emitters of greenhouse gases, per capita, in the world, and that their output would need to halve to drop back to the average among developed countries.
"Until they do something like that, it's just ridiculous to expect countries in Asia to take on this issue," he said. In Australia, there have been some positive signs.
Climate change was a key issue in the November 24 federal election and Labour leader Kevin Rudd's overwhelming victory was in part attributed to his pledge to act quickly to combat the problem.