ADB is committed to supporting low carbon city development efforts consistent with the global climate goals. Cities play crucial role in providing better life. For a long time, our cities are experiencing significant population and economic growth through carbon-intensive industrialization, urban sprawl and migration, and environmental pollution. In her welcome remarks, ADB's M. Teresa Kho notes how the Forum serves as a platform to address challenges and present innovative solutions and tools.

Growing volumes of waste are not matched with equal recovery and treatment capacity, especially in developing countries, making waste as one of today’s major global concerns. This session examines how a range of industries address resource use and efficiency and showcases some successful examples of market acceleration approaches to advance green technology and waste-related businesses.

While governments around the world including that of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has committed to greening the economy, meeting the huge financing needs of non-public sources remains a challenge. This presentation discusses how green finance is channeled in the PRC, the challenges encountered, and ADB’s approach to support the greening of the country’s financial system.

The need to green all finance and not just bonds means financing of investments that provide environmental benefits in the broader context of environmentally sustainable development. ADB’s Green Finance Catalyzing Facility is an innovative financing solution for enhancing both financially-bankable as well as environmentally-sustainable infrastructure projects.

To address key urban challenges in the Asia-Pacific region, ADB is committed to promoting water security and urban mobility, as well as strengthening climate change resilience and institutional effectiveness. This presentation discusses ADB’s work in the urban sector and areas of focus.

This presentation not only exhibits Hanwha’s successful approach to an environment friendly business, it also identifies the risks, opportunities and possible government interventions for climate change.

The Kingdom of Bhutan is one of a few countries in Asia with large, unexploited hydropower resources. Despite the surplus power, many rural households lacked access to electricity in the early to mid-2000s. The Government of Bhutan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) turned this challenge into an opportunity through the Green Power Development Project, which improved energy access and expanded the country’s revenue base due to income from power exports.