Presentations

Opening Remarks Akimasa Sumi

Setting the agenda: Paris Agreement: New Recurrence to "Human as part of the Nature"

Setting the agenda: SDGs and Paris Agreement on Climate Change: Converting Aspirations to Actions at the Regional and National Level

By Dr. Bindu N. Lohani

Current adoption of sustainable development goals (SDGs) by the UN General Assembly and the announcement of the Paris Agreement at UNFCCC COP21 calls for action towards shifting our perspective of ‘waste’ as unwanted substances to waste as ‘resources.’ Multiple number of SGDs, especially SDG #12 (‘Ensure responsible consumption and production patterns’) goal no. 6 (clean water and sanitation) and goal no. 11 (sustainable cities and communities) presents a huge scope for sustainable waste management and resource recovery activities. Similarly, the climate co-benefit of waste sector such as waste prevention, resource recovery, reuse and recycling as climate mitigation measures also open a new array of opportunities in sustainable waste management in the region.

This presentation illustrates the convergence between Waste, Climate and SDGs, where SDGs cannot not be achieved without tackling climate change, and addressing climate change is must for fostering sustainable development, also waste management and recycling are key drivers to both sustainable development and tackling climate change by reducing waste related GHG emissions. This presentation concludes with highlighting how the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) has been and can continue to work towards sustainable waste management in the region through its regular academic teaching, innovative technological and policy research, and regional networking projects.

Low Carbon Society

Avoiding the warming of above 1.5 or 2.0°C from mean of pra-industrial era, an objective agreed upon by the international community, will require that global net GHG emissions approach zero by the second half of the 21st century. This in turn will require very steep reduction of anthropogenic GHG emission in all sectors of activities. In most of ASEAN countries, the agriculture, forest and other land uses (AFOLU) still a major contributor of the emission. Globally, without mitigation effort, contribution of this sector to global emission may increase from 22% to 30% within the next 40 years. On the other hand, forest also can help slowing global warming by storing and sequestering carbon and help regulating local and regional rainfall. Forests also give benefits for millions of people not only as source of food, medicine, clean drinking water, but also for recreation, aesthetic, and spiritual needs. Unsustainable uses and mismanagement of land and forest resources actually lead to high emission but also to negatively impact development itself. It is very important for policy makers to be able to design spatial planning system that include emission reduction target along with economic planning, maintenance of watershed functions and ecological buffer. Role of science for helping policy formulation and planning is very important in this respect. This presentation will share Indonesian experience in applying science through the use of a developed tool by local governments for the integration of land-based sectoral programs and climate change mitigation policies. The tool helps the policy makers to be able to assess whether the current programs and future plans address the development problems and also contribute to reduction of emission, and to assess preconditions required for effective implementation of the action plans.

Waste Management and Recycling: Waste, Climate and Sustainable Development Convergence: AIT's Contribution Toward Sustainable Waste Management in Asia

By Dr. C. Visvanathan

Current adoption of sustainable development goals (SDGs) by the UN General Assembly and the announcement of the Paris Agreement at UNFCCC COP21 calls for action towards shifting our perspective of 'waste' as unwanted substances to waste as 'resources.' Multiple number of SGDs, especially SDG #12 ('Ensure responsible consumption and production patterns') goal no. 6 (clean water and sanitation) and goal no. 11 (sustainable cities and communities) presents a huge scope for sustainable waste management and resource recovery activities. Similarly, the climate co-benefit of waste sector such as waste prevention, resource recovery, reuse and recycling as climate mitigation measures also open a new array of opportunities in sustainable waste management in the region. This presentation illustrates the convergence between Waste, Climate and SDGs, where SDGs cannot not be achieved without tackling climate change, and addressing climate change is must for fostering sustainable development, also waste management and recycling are key drivers to both sustainable development and tackling climate change by reducing waste related GHG emissions. This presentation concludes with highlighting how the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) has been and can continue to work towards sustainable waste management in the region through its regular academic teaching, innovative technological and policy research, and regional networking projects.

Presentation 1-1: Social Monitoring and Modelling Research for Interactive Solution Design

The low carbon movements extend in the world particularly in rapidly growing Asian cities and regions. Wide range of technologies, policy initiatives have been discussed for their planning and implementation. Since every city and region have their own characteristic features and different policy decision circumstances and backgrounds, rather than unanimous policy framework or uniform technology design, low carbon technologies and policies need to be deliberately selected, evaluated and diagnosed with objective, transparent, quantitative and scientific manner.

The research project, firstly, focuses on developing integrative simulation models to design the optimal low carbon targets in the future for cities and regions as well as identifying efficient roadmaps with optimal combination of technologies and social systems. Secondly, the model results are applied into the spatial analysis based on Geographic Information Systems of cities to design suitable location patterns of land use and urban structures in a long run with designing key demonstration projects for the low carbon development. Finally, the results would be applied into implementing for eco-city panning under the interactive collaboration with public-private stakeholders. Eco-city smart monitoring systems are developed and implemented to support multi-stakeholder discussion for co-design procedures through quantification, visualization and comparison for alternative eco-city optional packages. Demonstration research projects in Fukushima, Japan, and Bogor City, Indonesia, are provided as case studies. Academic and policy outcome for integrative research challenges are identified such as strategic technology assessment and coordination for sustainable low fossil carbon society strategies, innovative monitoring system for the systematic project design and carbon credit certification are discussed.

Presentation 1-2: Academic contribution for the development of low carbon society

The energy, environment and ecosystem (3E) Nexus initiative project is an effort to achieve the above. The Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S), University of Tokyo with the vision of enhancing multinational research collaborations on low carbon development in Asia-Pacific countries has initiated the 3E-Nexus project. The project aims to advance mitigation actions by facilitating the diffusion of advanced low-carbon technologies, products, systems and infrastructure in line with the Japanese Joint Credit Mechanism (JCM) and other crediting mechanisms. On the other hand, the project targets capacity development activities such as kick-off meetings, workshops, trainings to understanding on the institutional and technical aspects such as GHG emission reduction projects and Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) methodologies of the JCM both at government and private sectors.

Presentation 1-3: Low carbon technology assessment and technology transfer in selected Asian countries

The Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific (RRC.AP) of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in collaboration with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) is conducting a project on the assessment of potential transfer of Japanese selected low carbon technologies in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. The assessment includes the analysis of technical, regulatory, financial, socio-economic aspects, both in terms of challenges and opportunities to promote low-carbon technologies in targeted Asian countries. The target technologies include waste heat recovery in the cement industry; Light Emitting Diode (LED); once-through boiler; industrial heat pumps; high efficiency air compressor, micro-cogeneration, and solar photovoltaic. A wide range of stakeholders, including policy makers, users, government agencies and academia were consulted through interviews, site visits and consultation workshops held in each country. The preliminary results of the assessment will be discussed.

Presentation 1-4: Capacity Building for Low Carbon and Resilient Society

Impact of climate change can now be seen all over the world whether in developed or developing countries. Southeast Asian counties, which have been experiencing rapid economic and population growth, are especially vulnerable to climate change. The ASEAN Community (AC), which will be formed in 2016, places an importance on issues of climate change and sustainable development. It is widely pointed out that one of the important tools for development and realization of low carbon and resilient society (LCRS) in the region is a capacity development of key stakeholders in the field of climate change as well as the access to information related to LCRS development. Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (Public Organization) (TGO) under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is a responsible agency in Thailand for climate change mitigation activities.  TGO initiated the establishment of Climate Change International Technical and Training Center (CITC) with support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). CITC aims to be a “one-stop technical training center” and networking platform on mitigation and adaptation for the Southeast Asian countries and other developing countries.

Presentation 2-1: Appropriate Management of Waste Disposal Site in Southeast Asia

Waste disposal is simple behavior of waste removal from daily life. Urban city required to develop the disposal site for the final responsibility for living standard and environmental safety. Rapid growth of development of Asian city are facing to the lack of capacity of appropriate disposal of municipal waste even though the promotion of recycling activity can reduce the amount of waste to be disposed. The presentation addresses the current study on technology development of final disposal system that consists of the engineered landfill, the leachate collection, stabilization, and treatment, and the gas management in collaboration with the study team in Thailand.

Presentation 2-2: Converting waste-into-resources in cities of Asia-Pacific: experiences from ESCAP's regional programme on "Pro-poor and sustainable solid waste management in secondary cities and small towns"

The presentation will focus on the experiences of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in supporting cities of the region in implementing “waste-to-resource” initiatives. An overview of the Integrated Resource Recovery Center model (IRRC) will be provided, in particular the lessons learned from piloting this model in cities of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam, which are distilled in the publication “Valuing Waste, Transforming Cities”, released by ESCAP in October 2015. The presentation will also reflect on the importance of measuring and quantifying co-benefits in the solid waste sector, especially in initiatives that lead to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Presentation 2-3: Rural Domestic Solid Waste in China: A Comprehensive Analysis of Characteristics, Management and Legislation

We conduct a comprehensive review of rural solid waste (RSW) in terms of characteristics, management and legislation. Survey results show that RSW generation rates range from 0.25 to 2.1 kg/capita/day in different rural villages across regions of China. Total RSW generation has been increasing, which is far higher than official data in 2014. RSW are dominated by food residue and coal ash/cinder/dust (at approximately 70%). Most of RSW are still discarded randomly without any treatment in China. With the purpose of promoting RSW management system in China, the problems and challenges are also discussed and identified, and some recommendations and expectations are proposed.

Presentation 2-4: Factors on E-waste Management System in Thailand

Today, there are plenty of e-waste coming out every day and more every year since Digital technology comes into place in our daily life. It will create problems if not managed properly. As a recent 4G license auction with 4 billion baht, of course mobile phones will become a plenty of e-waste in the near future comparing with other WEEs. If the question is “is it a problem?”, the answer is both of “Yes” and “No”. it will not be a problem if manage properly it will be a benefit to save natural resources especially rare earth materials, no need to get from ore mine but from urban mining (from WEEE) to reduce CO2 Emission, reduce global warming. On the other hand, it will be a problem if we do not mange properly, e.g., drop into general bin without any classification, therefore what we are going to do to manage in proper process.

The contents to be presented here will be look in 4 main factors called “L-U-M-P” factors according to my experience in this field for over 10 years. Many of these factors I think will affect or impact to the e-waste management system in Thailand or even to neighboring countries because of cultural similarities, for instance, consumers or producers look for get paid rather than pay, no law enforcement especially WEEE directive, people have no awareness on this etc. by these factors most are caused by stakeholders either Government sector, Producers or Importers, Users and Recyclers and they all look for their own benefit rather than for the public. So in order to be successful and achieve the sustainable management system we need to collaborate all 4 factors together; government, producer, user and recycler, as now pushing WEEE law.

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: REDD+ is a Solution for Restoring Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity

Dr. Nobuko Saigusa is currently the Deputy Director, Center for Global Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan. Her background is in micrometeorology and the terrestrial carbon cycles. She is involved in various research programs including Global Environment Monitoring (CGER/NIES), JapanFlux and AsiaFlux (Japanese and Asian monitoring networks for greenhouse gas fluxes), and JaLTER (Japan Long-Term Ecological Research Network). Her scientific interest is temporal and spatial variation of carbon and water cycles in forest ecosystems in Asia and its interactions with global climatic changes.

Environmental Monitoring: Monitoring and Environmental Impact Assessment - a Tool for Improved Project Design

While nearly every country has adopted environmental impact assessment (EIA), too many countries are using EIA as regulatory tool - ticking the box that an EIA has been done as a condition of project approval. Focusing more on the environmental monitoring and management plan (EMMP) attached to the EIA, ensuring that monitoring requirements are adequately funded as part of the conditions for project approval, building environmental monitoring into construction contracts and operational conditions, involving the affected population in community-based monitoring, and collecting the monitoring results in a publicly available database are essential activities to improve project design. Subsequently, the environmental monitoring data then need to be used in designing similar projects or projects in the same area.

Presentation 3-1: Health Risk Monitoring and Management for Sustainable Urban Environment

Coliform bacteria and Escherichia coli are simple and inexpensive to enumerate, yet are not always ideal indicators because they can survive and increase in number under some natural environment condition. Enteric viruses are more tolerant than coliforms against stresses in water environment and are most often the causative agents of disease via waters.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been trying to improve coastal water environment during and after rainfall events. As 2020 Olympic water sports is scheduled in the Odaiba seaside park, where the concentration of fecal indicators such as E.coli and enteric virus are known to increase during and after rainfall events.
Virus contamination levels in Tokyo bay were monitored. Also, a simple treatment method to mitigate the CSO is proposed.

Presentation 3-2: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of Communally Reserved Forests Managed by Indigenous People in a Human-modified Landscape in Borneo

Indigenous communities in Borneo leave forest patches within the traditional land-use system in an area of shifting cultivation to obtain ecosystem services; the forest is called as communally reserved forests (CRFs) here. In the human-modified landscape in Borneo, CRFs would be the only option for conservation of natural forest. To evaluate the conservation values of CRFs, I investigated how those forests had both social and ecological functions. From a sociological survey on CRFs, I found that the traditional definition of CRFs has changed and most CRFs had been previously disturbed. Villagers often accessed CRFs to obtain various kinds of ecosystem services, and they have increasingly recognized the value of CRFs along with the degradation of surrounding forests. From an ecological survey on tree species diversity in CRFs, I found that the tree species diversity in CRFs was high and equivalent to that of the primary forest although CRFs were fragmented and some had been disturbed in the past. The species composition between intact forests and disturbed forests in the past was also not clearly different, which indicates that past disturbance may not be intensive. Furthermore, all CRFs contained unique and endangered species, which are listed in the IUCN Red List. In conclusion, conservation of CRFs would contribute to restoring regional biodiversity and preserving ecosystem services for local communities in Borneo.

Presentation 3-3: Enhancing Resilience to Climate and Ecosystem Changes by Combining Traditional and Modern Bio Production Systems in Rural Asia

This study confirms the strategies that enhancing resilience to climate and ecosystem changes by integrating modern and traditional systems in rural Asia includes Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. However, some interventions are essential to further strengthen them, i.e., the building of a mosaic system has the potential to create a system of more resilient to climate and ecosystem changes. The Mosaic systems can help to achieve further resilient societies. A framework was developed for assessing and analyzing resilience in detail and concrete strategies to enhance resilience were formulated in accordance with case studies. The results exhibits that the field surveys and statistical analysis demonstrated that it is possible to develop strategies to adapt to climate and ecosystem changes by primarily using traditional varieties of rice crop that can adapt to climate change in combination with modern varieties of rice crop in rural Vietnam and Sri Lanka. While, this is different strategy from improving varieties on which the success of the Green Revolution was formed.

Presentation 3-4: Contribution of the REDD+ Scheme to Carbon Emission Reductions and Biodiversity Conservation in Southeast Asia

Adoption of the Paris Agreement in December 2015 to limit greenhouse gas emissions provides new hope for responsible low carbon development in developed and developing countries. This adoption further strengthens the REDD+ scheme of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which provides result-based financial incentives for reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, conservation of forests, sustainable management of forests, or increasing carbon stocks through forest restoration. As deforestation continued, Southeast Asia emitted 648 TgCO2 annually between 2000 and 2010 in addition to affecting 83-91% of the threatened flora and fauna species. Depending on effectiveness of the REDD+ activities, up to 80% of the above emissions can be reduced with the appropriate carbon price. Unfortunately, carbon prices in recent years were not high enough compared to revenues from clearing of forests for industrial plantations. It is obviously important that payment for other ecosystem services be considered to increase additional financial incentives from the results of biodiversity safeguarding. If well preserved, forests in Southeast Asia could regenerate US$1.4 trillion annually from payment for ecosystem services or about 29% of GDP in Japan. This report reviews the previous experiences in REDD+ activities, payment for ecosystem services, and biodiversity conservation with special reference to Southeast Asia.

Presentation 4-1: Monitoring and Detection of Carbon Cycle Change using an Integrated Observation, Modeling and Analysis System

The Center for Global Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies has established a fundamental infrastructure for an integrated carbon observation and analysis system based on satellite, airborne, and ground-based observations, and atmospheric and terrestrial carbon cycle models. Atmospheric transport modeling and inverse modeling are being tested and improved for better utilization of reinforced observation data from the Asia-Pacific region. Regional net carbon fluxes between atmosphere and land are estimated by both "top-down” approach (with inverse models) and "bottom-up” approach (with surface flux observation network data (e.g. AsiaFlux) and terrestrial ecosystem models). Results from different methods are compared, and similarities and differences of estimated carbon budgets are discussed. Discussion will include a review of current issues for better constraints of global, continental, and regional carbon budgets, detection of carbon cycle change particularly in the Asia-Pacific, and need of future observation missions for better understanding of the global and regional carbon cycle.

Presentation 4-2: Monitoring of Atmospheric Environment in Asia

As a result of rapid economic development in an unstainable manner, urbanization, industrialization and increasing population, Asian region, in particular in urban areas and their surroundings, has been experiencing increasing level of atmospheric pollution, in particular PM2.5 and O3, which are transboundary and can cause regional atmospheric pollution problem. They have actually caused negative impacts to human health and environment and backfiring to the economic development.   Efforts have been made through several regional initiatives and programs in the last two decades to establish and carry out continuous monitoring of atmospheric environment in Asia in order to assess its state of atmospheric environment in hoping that it will lead to the implementation of mitigation actions and subsequent improvement of the state of atmospheric environment. The presentation will cover the establishment and the implementation of regional monitoring of atmospheric environment in Asia under three regional networks, namely Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET), Malé Declaration on Control and Prevention of Air Pollution and Its Likely Transboundary Effects for South Asia (Malé Declaration) and Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC) Program. Their most recent monitoring results will also be summarized and presented.

Presentation 4-3: Geoinformatics for Environmental Information Collection, Management and Monitoring

The objective behind the SDG concept launched in 2015 was to produce a set of universally applicable goals that balances three dimensions of sustainable development; environmental, social, and economic. As these factors are interlinked, it was recognized that developments should address through an integrated approach of these three pillars. Also, it is documented that appropriate indicators need to be identified as indicators would be the backbone of monitoring progress towards the SDGs. Within the 17 SDG goals launched, over 140 indicators are being identified to measure and monitor the progress in national and global scale. Needless to say, it is an enormous challenge to collect data and information of these indicators, specifically from national level, for continuous monitoring of the progress of the goals. Geoinformatics, combining satellite imageries, GPS and GIS have greatly expanded opportunities for collection, integration, and monitoring, and analyzing various earth related phenomenon and these technologies are readily available for quantify the SDG indicators. Disaster losses, forest degradations and forest change, urbanizations and green/urban ratio, air quality, water quality, ocean status, crop area and yield estimation, desertification, climate related extreme events are some of the quantifiable data that could use to measure SDG indicators. These technologies allow affordable information as well as filling information gaps in various spatial scales. This presentation covers examples drawn from number of applications where space based technologies could apply for environmental monitoring as well as show potential to use as SDG indicators.