Waste is Cool! How 'First Mile' Waste Solutions can Cool the Smart Cities of the Future

The need for cooling grows dramatically with rising prosperity and global temperatures. But what does that have to do with waste? 70% of the world’s waste today is dumped or landfilled without energy recovery. 2 billion tons of waste ‘wasted’ every year by 2030 correspond to 800GW of solar PV capacity (500GW installed globally today). Done right, waste is one of few ‘fuels’ produced everywhere, and perhaps surprisingly, very suitable for the production of sustainable cooling.

Daniel Hersson

Daniel manages a multi-year program to support cleantech startups, accelerators and venture capital investors across Asia-Pacific. He has more than 18 years’ experience in the global energy and cleantech industry. Daniel is a recognized specialist in venture capital, strategy, startups, and innovation. Previously, he was Director of Strategy at BP Ventures, a leading global cleantech and energy-focused corporate venture capital fund. Daniel is also co-founder and venture partner at Infuse Ventures, India’s first early-stage cleantech venture capital fund.

Clean Energy Entrepreneurship and the Youth

Young CEOs and founders of startups ponder on the role of the youth in driving clean energy technology in Asia.
By 2030, energy demand is projected to almost double in the Asia and Pacific region. Unless we move to cleaner sources of energy, Asia will account for more than 46% of global CO2 emissions by 2030. At the same time, 700 million people in Asia, more than anywhere else in the world, still have no access to electricity.

The People’s Republic of China’s Municipal Waste-to-Energy Project: A Model Approach to Financing a State-of-the-Art Technology

In the People’s Republic of China, higher income growth in urban and rural areas resulted in higher demand for energy and generation of more waste. Using the Asian Development Bank (ADB) innovative financing approach, a private company applied the waste-to-energy technology that increases electricity generating capacity without greenhouse gas emissions.

Read about ADB’s other energy projects in Knowledge and Power: Lessons from ADB Energy Projects.

Stephen Peters

Steve Peters is a Senior Energy Specialist (Waste-to-Energy) in the Energy Sector Group of the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department, Asian Development Bank. He is responsible for developing the knowledge base, project development and implementation in waste to energy and supporting projects across waste, the circular economy, and ocean impacts.

Toru Kubo

Toru joined ADB in 2004 as the organization's first full-time climate change staff. He designed and established ADB’s Carbon Market Program including one of the world's first post-Kyoto carbon funds, led ADB's work to promote climate change technologies through venture capital funds, and helped establish various other initiatives focused on the nexus of climate change and energy security. In 2011 he was seconded to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat to help design the Green Climate Fund and the Climate Technology Centre and Network.