Panel Discussion

Yongping Zhai and Preety Bhandari emphasized that while institutions such as ADB can help mobilize financing towards low carbon and climate resilient development, the bulk of climate financing originates in countries where they are deployed. Ultimately, the greater role will lie on governments in ensuring that national policies are in place so that national budgets are allocated towards this purpose and incentives are provided to the private sector to channel funds in the right direction.

ADBI-Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Roundtable on Sanitation and Development

Sanitation gaps are a global problem that continues to affect large segments of developing Asia and the Pacific, despite the considerable progress of efforts to address it in recent decades. The COVID-19 crisis has further increased the importance of improving inclusive sanitation access and the lives of targeted users, especially across poor areas and vulnerable groups.

Dil Rahut

Dil Rahut joined the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) as a Senior Research Fellow in January 2021 and was appointed Vice-Chair of Research in April 2022.

His research focuses on development microeconomics, agricultural economics, and environmental and natural resource economics. He is currently implementing experiments and field research in agriculture, natural resources, and climate in Asia.

K.E. Seetha Ram

He is concurrently visiting professor at the Center for Spatial Information Science, University of Tokyo, Japan, and a special advisor to East Japan Railways Company (JR East) for India High-Speed Rail. Between 2013-2017, Seetha acted as the focal point for ADB-wide knowledge management, working to spur innovative solutions to the varied development challenges in Asia.

Remarks

In his remarks, James Lynch highlighted the need for new approaches and integrated solutions to achieve carbon neutrality in the region, generate new revenues from renewable energy, and channel more private investments into research and development.

James Lynch

James Lynch was the Director General of the East Asia Department of Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila, Philippines. He assumed office in February 2020.

Mr. Lynch managed ADB’s sovereign operations in the People’s Republic of China and Mongolia across multiple sectors and thematic areas, including transport, energy, environment, climate change, health, education, and public finance. He was also responsible for ADB’s relations with Hong Kong, China; Republic of Korea; and Taipei, China.

Shingo Kimura

Shingo is responsible for ADB’s operation on sustainable rural development and food security in East Asia. Prior to joining ADB, he was Economist and Agricultural Policy Analyst at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, where he conducted a series of policy research for the productive, sustainable, and resilient food and agricultural sector in Europe, North America, and Asia.

Rural Prosperity with Carbon Neutrality and Food Security

Rural regions have the advantage of not only having the space for solar and wind energy production - which are low-carbon electricity technologies - but also have the potential to generate carbon neutral bioenergy. This scenario sets the opportunity on leading the process towards carbon neutrality. However, rural carbon neutrality does have implications for food security as food-land-nexus complicates the interactions.