Going Green:Why Asia is moving toward a green model of growth

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CONTENTS YEAR V, NUMBER XII, JANUARY—MARCH 2012 4(205. ;/, *(:, -69 7(;0,5; *(70;(3! 05=,:;05. *63(30-,! 3,=,9(.05. ( :6+( ( :<:;(05()3, -<;<9, -69 7<)30* .66+ *647(5@»: 5,;>692FOCUS 24 DIRTY BUSINESS 46 PROFILES IN DEVELOPMENTENVIRONMENT Asia is on the receiving end of some of A LIFE EXAMINING the world’s most toxic waste. $QQLH XÁR LV SDUW RI D JURZLQJ6 THE BIG READ By William Branigin breed of young developmentGROWING GREEN _______________________________ professionals who are working to0XVW GHYHORSLQJ $VLD VDFULÀFH LWV 28 DRY COUGH test the effectiveness of developmentenvironment for economic prosperity? Booming economies and an expanding programs.A growing number of political leaders FDUORYLQJ PLGGOH FODVV DUH IRXOLQJ By Jade Lee-Duffythink not. Asia’s skies… and they might be the _______________________________By Gregg Jones best way to clear them. 48 RECONNAISSANCE___________________________________ By Floyd Whaley A REFRESHING DEVELOPMENT14 THE BIG PICTURE In remote, impoverished places whereATMOSPHERIC EFFORTS Also, sidebar: FOUR-STROKE clean water and medicine are hard toAlready among the top threats to SAVINGS ÀQG SHRSOH FDQ VWLOO EX DQ LFHFROGhealth, outdoor air pollution is a _______________________________ Coke.concern in cities across developing 32 MURKY WATER By Andrew MarshallAsia. Though the situation is Water pollution threatens millions inimproving in many areas, challenges Asia but innovative solutions are being _______________________________remain as populations shift to urban found.centers and growing economies By Jade Lee-Duffy and Karen Emmons DEPARTMENTSproduce more vehicles and industry. _______________________________By Mark Blackwell 36 CAMBODIA GOES GREEN 4 OFF THE PRESS___________________________________ Cambodia has aggressively embraced Noteworthy excerpts on global issues16 THE BIG VOICE the concept of green growth but serious from the international pressASHOK KHOSLA challenges lie ahead. _______________________________$Q LQÁXHQWLDO WKLQNHU RQ WKH By Karen Emmons 5 ON THE WEBenvironment explains why the planet _______________________________ Development hot spots on theFDQQRW FRSH ZLWK LQÀQLWH HFRQRPLF worldwide webgrowth, and why Bhutan’s gross ARTICLES _______________________________national happiness index is no joke. 40 OFF THE SHELFBy John Otis 42 GOOD INVESTMENT Recommended reading on economic_______________________________ ,QYHVWRUV ZLOOLQJ WR DFFHSW EHORZ and development topics20 GREENBACK GROWTH market returns to achieve positive _______________________________The divide between environmentalists social change are a rising force in global 52 ON THE RECORDand policy makers often remains wide, development. Notable quotes on key issuesbut bridges are being built. By Gregg JonesBy Gregg Jones2 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

ContributorsMark Blackwell has more than 20 years of Jade Lee-Duffy has worked subjects. He is the author of the upcomingexperience covering issues ranging from as a journalist in Hong Kong book Honor in the Dust: Theodorescience and economics to politics and for more than 10 years, Roosevelt, War in the Philippines, and theinternational affairs for news organizations, covering education, property, Rise and Fall of America’s Imperial Dream.including the Hearst Corporation and the arts, food, and healthCapital Cities/ABC. He specializes in issues. She is a regular contributor to the Andrew Marshall is a Bangkok-basedinformation graphics. South China Morning Post. journalist and the author of The Trouser People, a political travelogue about William Branigin served as Karen Emmons is a Bangkok-based Myanmar. Southeast Asia bureau chief journalist who writes on public health and of The Washington Post social issues. Floyd Whaley covers the Philippines for for 10 years, reporting from the International Herald Tribune and The more than a dozen countries Gregg Jones was a New York Times. He is the senior editorin the region. He was based in Bangkok correspondent in Asia for 10 of Development Asia and operates Asiafrom 1981 to 1986 and in Manila from 1990 years, covering development Editorial Services.to 1995. issues, civil wars and other Development Asia House ADwww.development.asia

6-- ;/, 79,::Blame Game Private Money for the Public Good“Human activity has caused profound ´3ULYDWH IRXQGDWLRQV KDYH HPHUJHG DV LQFUHDVLQJO SRWHQW SODHUV LQ WKH ÀJKWchanges to the climate, biodiversity, DJDLQVW SRYHUW DORQJVLGH RIÀFLDO GHYHORSPHQW DLG $FFRUGLQJ WR D +XGVRQ ,QVWLWXWHoceanic acidity and greenhouse-gas UHSRUW WRWDO RIÀFLDO GHYHORSPHQW DVVLVWDQFH ZDV ELOOLRQ LQ ZKLOH JOREDOlevels in the atmosphere. But it does SKLODQWKURS DPRXQWHG WR ELOOLRQ 3ULYDWH FDSLWDO LQYHVWPHQW ELOOLRQ

not automatically follow that the more IRUPV WKH ODUJHVW ÀQDQFLDO ÁRZ IURP ULFKHU WR SRRUHU FRXQWULHV ZKLOH UHPLWWDQFHVpeople there are, the worse the damage. ELOOLRQ

ZHUH WKH VHFRQGODUJHVW ÁRZµ—The Guardian, 9 November 2011,Q $PHULFDQV DQG $XVWUDOLDQVemitted almost 20 tonnes of carbondioxide each. In contrast, more than 60FRXQWULHV³LQFOXGLQJ WKH YDVW PDMRULW Dirty RecoveryRI $IULFDQ RQHV³HPLWWHG OHVV WKDQ “Analysis by the PricewaterhouseCoopers Low Carbon Economy Index showstonne per person…. Global pollution that during the recession, many countries including Britain saw emissions fallwill be more affected by the pattern faster than gross domestic product, a measure of the total economy, because theirRI HFRQRPLF JURZWK³DQG HVSHFLDOO manufacturing output fell. But in 2010, global GDP growth was just above 5%,whether emerging nations become as while emissions rose by nearly 6%.”—Daily Telegraph, 7 November 2011energy-intensive as America, Australiaand [the People’s Republic of]China.”—The Economist, 22 October 2011 Consumption Trumps Growth “As the UN report points out: ‘Considerable population growth continues today because of the high numbers of births in the 1950s and 1960s, which haveA Bright Idea resulted in larger base populations with millions of young people reaching their reproductive years over succeeding generations…’ Yes, population growth“While switching to compact contributes to environmental problems. No, it is not the decisive factor. Even theÁXRUHVFHQW EXOEV³ PRUH HIÀFLHQW availability of grain is affected more by rising livestock numbers and the use ofWKDQ LQFDQGHVFHQWV³KDV EHFRPH ELRIXHOV³GULYHQ DJDLQ E FRQVXPSWLRQ³WKDQ E KXPDQ SRSXODWLRQ JURZWKµ—unremarkable in some developed George Monbiot’s Blog, The Guardian, 27 October 2011QDWLRQV WKH VLJQLÀFDQFH RI >WKHPeople’s Republic of] China’s moveshould not be underestimated….With [the PRC] churning out billions Get Used to High PricesRI HIÀFLHQW EXOEV FRVWV ZLOO IDOO 7KDW ´&DWDVWURSKLF ÁRRGLQJ DQG FURS ORVVHV LQ 7KDLODQG WKH ZRUOG·V OHDGLQJ ULFHmeans it will be possible to cut carbon H[SRUWHU DUH UDLVLQJ FRQFHUQV WKDW DQRWKHU IRRG FULVLV PD EH LQ WKH RIÀQJ $OVRemissions from lighting around the disquieting is the possibility that the world may have already entered a newworld without denying the most basic era where persistently high food prices are the ‘New Normal.’ At a time whenof amenities to the world’s poor.”— policymakers are grappling with a host of thorny economic issues, the possibilityDamian Carrington’s Environment Blog, may be unwelcome, but must not be ignored.”—Asian Development Bank’s Iwan J.The Guardian, 5 November 2011 Azis in an opinion piece for The Japan Times, 7 November 2011Signs of the Times Good as Cash “Vouchers solve many of the serious“Any economic model that does not properly address inequality will eventually problems that have always plaguedface a crisis of legitimacy. Unless the relative economic roles of the market and in-kind food aid…. [And] Aid isthe state are rebalanced, the protests of 2011 will become more severe, with social multiplied as it helps not onlyand political instability eventually harming long-term economic growth and recipients, but merchants.”welfare.”—Economist Nouriel Roubini, writing for Project Syndicate in October 2011 —The New York Times, 3 November 20114 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

65 ;/, >,)What’s Your Footprint?Global Footprint NetworkO[[W!^^^MVV[WYPU[UL[^VYRVYNH ow much of an impact does your lifestyle make on Earth? How much land area does it take to support your consumption? Global Footprint Network hasmade this a personal question with a quiz on their websitethat gives users an estimate of their ecological footprint. The website walks users through a variety of questions,such as how often they eat meat, how they heat their home,and how often they take the train. After answering thequestions, a report card on the user’s impact on the earth isprovided. It includes such admonitions as: “If everyone livedthe same lifestyle as you, we would require the regenerativecapacity of 1.6 planets each year” and “to support yourlifestyle, it takes 2.8 hectares of the earth’s productive area.” Although the science behind such a quiz might be Realityquestionable (the website provides a link that outlines itsVFLHQWLÀF EDVLV

WKH LPSDFW RQ WKH XVHU LV VLJQLÀFDQW 7KH Hedley Environmental Indexmere answering of the questions forces users to contemplate O[[W!OLKSL`PUKL_ZWOOROROVTLWOWhow much they are consuming and the impact it is having. G At the end of the quiz, a link is provided to assess how overnments around Asia are grappling with howusers can lessen their ecological footprint, which after all to monitor and respond to air pollution. Few haveis the whole point of the exercise. For now, the quiz is only come up with estimates on how much poor airoffered in Asia for residents of the People’s Republic of quality costs society.China, India, and Japan; but work is underway to add more The public policy think tank Civic Exchange, based incountries. Hong Kong, China, has taken the initiative and hosts a 7KH TXL] LV D FOHYHU DVSHFW RI DWWHPSWV E WKH QRQSURÀW website that has become an example of how to measure andorganization, Global Footprint Network, to develop a illustrate the impact of air pollution.standardized method of measuring human impact on the The site publishes in real time the economic costs of Hongearth. The group seeks to develop ecological footprint report Kong, China’s air pollution in terms of public health impactscards for cities, companies, and individuals to be used as a and their monetary value. This includes premature deaths,tool to lessen the impact on the environment. hospital bed days, and doctor visits. Their plan is ambitious, but it all starts by taking a quiz. Ŷ :KHQ XVHUV ÀUVW ODQG RQ WKH SDJH D VSLQQLQJ WLFNHU WHOOV them how many dollars have been lost due to air pollution in Hong Kong, China, since midnight. Click another button and it tells how many lives have been lost since January 1 DV RI HFHPEHU

$ GDLO FKHFN RI WKH VLWH LV D VREHULQJ reminder of the impact of air pollution on society. The site also includes an air quality tracking tool that allows users to compare current air quality to World Health Organization air quality guidelines in real time, or to compare historical records of good and bad air days. It includes a photo of the Hong Kong, China skyline that is updated every 15 minutes by the Hong Kong Observatory. The index is the brainchild of Anthony Hedley, the chair of Community Medicine at the School of Public Health at Hong Kong University, and a team of researchers who have for decades worked on air-related health issues in Hong Kong, China; and southern People’s Republic of China. Q Researched and written by Floyd Whaleywww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 5

,5=09654,5;! ;/, )0. 9,(+ Growing Green Must developing Asia sacrifice its environment for economic prosperity? A growing number of political leaders think not BY Gregg JonesA t the Boao Forum for Asia in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 2010, some 2,000 political and businessleaders from around the regionapplauded when PRC Vice-PresidentXi Jinping in his keynote addresscalled for “green and sustainabledevelopment.” His forward-thinkingblueprint for future Asian developmentincluded the promotion of renewableenergy and low-carbon technology, andefforts aimed at steeping Asians in theculture of conservation—ideals thatwere hardly priorities for most leadersin the region just a few years ago. 7KH QDWLRQV RI $VLD DQG WKH 3DFLÀFhave dazzled the world with theirrobust economic growth over the past2 decades, reducing poverty ratesand delivering middle-class comfortsto millions. But the region has alsobecome a leader in the unwelcomebyproducts of traditional development:reduced water and air quality, depletednatural resources, and imperiledbiodiversity. That is beginning to change. “Green growth” projects aresprouting around the region. The PRC,for years best known for its spectaculareconomic growth and spiralingenvironmental problems, has alsobecome a leader in the development ofgreen technologies. In 2009, the PRCovertook Denmark, Germany, Spainand the United States to become theGREEN PATH Soft light illuminates aforest path in Bosung, Republic of Korea.The country has committed to investing2% of its gross domestic product (GDP)in green growth.6 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

world’s top manufacturer of wind DQG WKH 3DFLÀF, laid out the harmful turbines, and its domestic market results of the region’s rush to deliver for turbines has already become the economic growth. Developing world’s largest. The PRC also boasts FRXQWULHV LQ $VLD DQG WKH 3DFLÀF IRXQG the world’s longest high-speed rail themselves “challenged by associated network, and holds close to 1,000 local air and water pollution, degraded and international patents for high- natural resources and threatened speed rail technologies. ecosystems, worsening water stress, Support for environmentally natural disasters, and increased friendly growth isn’t limited to Asia’s generation of wastes including economically powerful. At the Boao hazardous waste.” And the problems Forum in the PRC, former Philippine are being exacerbated by climate President Fidel Ramos urged Asian change. leaders to pursue a green recovery, “Anthropogenic climate change is even if it meant a painful transition ONE WORLD Leaders from around the a serious challenge to sustainability,” for countries in the region. Mongolian world will convene in June for the Earth notes the report. “It threatens not Prime Minister Sukhbaataryn Batbold Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. only the integrity of natural systems, conceded that it would take decades to but also the very fabric of economic wean his country from its dependence and social systems, especially in the on fossil fuels, but pledged to promote developing world. Among all the green strategies in mining, railways, “The concepts of a UHJLRQV $VLD DQG WKH 3DFLÀF KDV WKH and construction. green economy and greatest number of people at risk from The talk was similarly bold in Seoul, climate change impacts.” Republic of Korea, in June last year green growth are With populations throughout much at the Global Green Growth Summit now moving into of the region continuing to rise, the hosted by the Government of the the mainstream of pressure to deliver economic progress Republic of Korea and the Organisation isn’t going to ease in the foreseeable for Economic Co-operation and global and regional future. Indeed, the political imperative Development. The theme of the policy discourse, not to create more jobs, modernize gathering was “Building Planet- to mention national infrastructure, and build new cities Responsible Civilization.” High-level only promises to increase. JRYHUQPHQW RIÀFLDOV GHYHORSPHQW strategies. ” “The industrial transformation in experts, and other participants shared Asia’s developing economies, the risePICTURE CREDIT: UN PHOTO/KIBAE PARK (REPUBLIC OF KOREA), NASA’S EARTH OBSERVATORY strategies for green growth and cross- ·(ZPHU +L]LSVWTLU[ )HUR in the material standard of living, 7YLZPKLU[ /HYOPRV 2YVKH border cooperation in the pursuit of and the reduction of poverty in many sustainable economies. In his opening of these countries will require great remarks, Lee Myung-bak, President to produce rising prosperity left those amounts of natural resources and of the Republic of Korea, set the tone warnings largely unheeded. In 2005, generate large quantities of emissions,” by calling for technological advances Asia’s voracious appetite for raw says Achim Steiner, an under-secretary- essential to building green economies materials hit a world-leading 35 billion general at the United Nations and that won’t threaten the prosperity of WRQV 7KDW ÀJXUH LV RQ WDUJHW WR UHDFK D executive director of UNEP. “Because future generations. staggering 80 billion tons by 2050. The UHVRXUFHV DUH ÀQLWH DQG WKH DEVRUSWLYH “We can make changes,” he said, region’s soaring demand for energy capacity of the Earth’s ecosystems is “if we concentrate all our efforts on is similarly insatiable: Asia and the limited, the aspirations of these nations harmony between man and the Earth.” 3DFLÀF·V VKDUH RI JOREDO HQHUJ GHPDQG will most likely be constrained by spiked from about 20.5% in 1975 to environmental factors.” ‘VORACIOUS APPETITE’ about 35.6% in 2005, and it is projected Although rapidly growing countries Forward-thinkers in Asia have to reach 50% by 2028, according to in Asia are becoming more resource- warned for years that the days of the United Nations Environment HIÀFLHQW RYHU WLPH WKH DUH VWLOO growth without regard for resource Programme (UNEP). UHODWLYHO OHVV HIÀFLHQW WKDQ GHYHORSHG consumption or environmental costs A recent Asian Development Bank countries, says Nessim Ahmad, could not continue. But the pressure (ADB) report, Greening Growth in Asia director of ADB’s Environment and www.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 7

,5=09654,5;! ;/, )0. 9,(+ UHVRXUFH HIÀFLHQF DQG SUHYHQWV WKH loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The concept is a derivative of “sustainable development,” an idea that arose in the 1980s with the belief that economic advancement around the world had to proceed in greater harmony with the natural environment. A 1987 report by the UN-backed World Commission on Environment and Development made the case for the interdependence of economic development and the environment. “The environment does not exist as a sphere separate from human actions, ambitions, and needs, and therefore it should not be considered in isolationWALL OF PROMISES United States region dearly, experts warn. from human concerns,” a summary ofPresident George H. W. Bush signs the “Asia cannot continue its current the report states. “The environment isEarth pledge with his wife Barbara during path of development, which is where we all live; and developmentWKH ÀUVW 8QLWHG 1DWLRQVVSRQVRUHG (DUWK not sustainable,” says Nay Htun, is what we all do in attempting toSummit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, a former UN assistant secretary- improve our lot within that abode. Thewhich set in motion the global drive for general with considerable experience two are inseparable.”sustainable development. in development, environment, and The idea gained critical mass in June energy issues. “The consequences 1992 when delegates from around theSafeguards Division. He notes that include increasing inequities, poverty, world convened in Rio de Janeiro,$VLD·V UHVRXUFH HIÀFLHQF³XVLQJ IHZHU social strife, retarding economic %UD]LO IRU WKH ÀUVW 81 &RQIHUHQFHresources per unit of gross domestic development and growth and on Environment and Development.product—is a key factor in the region’s worsening environmental quality, with The Agenda 21 action plan adoptedsustainable development. serious effects on human health and by the conference called on nations “In 2005, for instance, the PRC and well-being.” to adopt a model of sustainableIndia had material intensities of 9.2 The UN’s Steiner echoes that development in their pursuit ofand 6.84 kilograms per dollar of GDP, dire note. “Ultimately, the region’s social and economic advancementrespectively, while Japan had a material competitive viability will be governed in the 21st century. A year later, theintensity of under 0.30 kg per dollar by the speed and scale at which it UN established the Commission onRI *3 7KHVH H[LVWLQJ HIÀFLHQF JDSV adopts new industrial systems that use Sustainable Development to overseesignal a tremendous opportunity for a far less energy, materials, and water implementation of the agenda adoptedUHJLRQ WR DGRSW PRUH UHVRXUFHHIÀFLHQW as well as its continued progress on at Rio.production processes while pursuing achieving prosperity for the people,” Ten years after the Rio gathering,growth,” he says. he says. the World Summit on Sustainable The challenge for Asia is to deliver Those stark realities have attracted Development convened ineconomic gains while setting aside Asian policy makers to the idea of Johannesburg, South Africa, tothe growth-at-any-price development green development. reinvigorate the efforts set in motion inmodel. “Climate change and Brazil.environmental sustainability are INTERDEPENDENT AND Over the past decade, the conceptamong the key challenges,” Ahmad INSEPARABLE KDV XQGHUJRQH VXEWOH UHÀQHPHQWVsays. “The grow-now-clean-up-later It’s hard to argue with the philosophy giving rise to a philosophy that places PICTURE CREDIT: AFPapproach will undermine the future RI JUHHQ JURZWK $V GHÀQHG E 81(3 greater emphasis on growth rathergrowth and poverty reduction potential it increases income and employment, WKDQ VDFULÀFLQJ GHYHORSPHQW DPELWLRQVof the region.” reduces carbon emissions and to save the environment. It’s a critical The failure to change will cost the pollution, enhances energy and distinction for policy makers in Asia8 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

and other developing regions of the He cites three countries in Asia that PRC also recently adopted a greenworld. are making progress on this front. development plan as part of its 12th “The concepts of a green economy 7KH 5HSXEOLF RI .RUHD KDV Five-Year Plan.and green growth are now moving SURPRWHG WKH HIÀFLHQW XVH RI UHVRXUFHV Steiner notes other importantinto the mainstream of global and waste prevention and resource initiatives underway around theregional policy discourse, not to reutilization, extended producer region: Indonesia’s efforts to phase outmention national strategies,” said ADB responsibility, and recycling since fossil fuels and reduce deforestation,President Haruhiko Kuroda in a recent the early 1990s. In 2008, it developed Thailand’s initiative on cleanspeech. a national strategy and action plan technology, Viet Nam’s policies on ´,W LV DERXW ÀQGLQJ ZDV IRU for low carbon green growth. More energy tariffs and subsidy reforms,countries to grow more sustainably. It recently, it has launched the Green India’s Rural Employment Guaranteeseeks to create jobs and new sources New Deal Policy to invest 2% of its Act and Clean Energy Fund, andof economic advancement based on GDP in green growth and created the Bhutan’s Gross National Happinessthe development and deployment of Global Green Growth Institute in Seoul. LQGLFHV DV SDUW RI D UHGHÀQLWLRQ RIclean technologies that curb pollution, -DSDQ KDV SLRQHHUHG UHVRXUFH wealth and economic progress.conserve our ecosystems, and prevent HIÀFLHQF DQG UHFFOLQJ ZLWK LWV “In my opinion, leadership andresource depletion.” Fundamental Law and Plan for vision have been fundamental to the The campaign for green growth will Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle development of such green initiativesmark another milestone at a propitious Society, which was adopted in 2000, and the political leaders of Asia–moment in 2012, when delegates from and its Law on Promoting Green 3DFLÀF VKRXOG EH FRQJUDWXODWHG IRUaround the world return to Rio for Purchasing, enacted in the same year. recognizing the need to change andthe UN Conference on Sustainable Numerous initiatives have followed. taking steps toward greener and moreDevelopment. 7KH 35& KDV ODXQFKHG D VHULHV RI sustainable development,” says Steiner. green growth initiatives, beginning “At the same time, the industrialLEADING THE WAY with a 2002 law promoting cleaner and business sectors, civil societyAt Rio, representatives of Asia and production, its Solid Waste Act organizations, and ordinary people areWKH 3DFLÀF ZLOO EH DEOH WR SRLQW WR (amended in 2004), and its Circular all making an important contribution.”substantial progress in several areas Economy Law in 2008, which promotes While working to achieve bettercritical to green growth: energy improved resource utilization and environmental balance in itsconservation and renewable energy reduction, reuse, and recycling of development efforts, the PRC has alsodevelopment, pollution mitigation, resources during production. The EHHQ D OHDGHU LQ WDSSLQJ WKH SURÀWexpansion of clean mass transitsystems, improved urban planning,and preservation of natural resources. “Reshaping and refocusingpolicies and investments can leadto better returns on natural, human,and economic capital,” says Steiner.“UNEP is already working with manycountries in the region to make thetransition to a sustainable developmentmodel, which is still the overarchinggoal.”RECYCLING PIONEER A TV set is placedon a disassembly line in Japan whereworkers dismantle the appliance andremove parts that may be recycled.-DSDQ KDV SLRQHHUHG UHVRXUFH HIÀFLHQFand recycling with its FundamentalLaw and Plan for Establishing a Sound0DWHULDO&FOH 6RFLHW LQ www.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 9

,5=09654,5;! ;/, )0. 9,(+potential of the shift to low-carbon, wildly oscillating commodity prices major industrial and residential estategreen technologies—a fact underscored that we have recently witnessed, one developer in Indonesia, PT Jababekaby the PRC’s rapid emergence lesson learned from the crisis was that Terbuka, now advertises environmentalas the leading world supplier of countries should not rely solely on responsibility as a selling point towind turbines and high-speed rail exports for growth,” says Steiner. “As foreign corporations looking to relocatetechnology. In 2008, the PRC earned a result, there has been a shift in the to the Southeast Asian country. It toutsmore than $60 billion—1.4% of its region toward domestic consumption a pollution prevention program, theGDP—from green technology business as a driver of growth. Opportunities, “3R concept (reduce, recycle, reuse)activities. therefore, lie in the deployment of to lessen the negative impacts on the 7KH UHFHQW ÀQDQFLDO FULVLV KDV QRW green technologies more widely HQYLURQPHQWµ DQG DQ HQHUJHIÀFLHQFslowed the gathering momentum for within Asia, rather than emphasizing program “to reduce greenhouse gasgreen growth in Asia. In fact, the 2008– exclusively external markets for these emissions.” Working with Indonesia’s2009 crisis was an impetus for clean products.” eminent environmentalist andgrowth. Australia, the PRC, Japan, Nay Htun notes that green sustainable development advocate,and the Republic of Korea have been initiatives have been launched not Emil Salim, the company has promotedsingled out for praise by green growth just by governments, but also by tree planting and other green activities.DGYRFDWHV IRU GHYRWLQJ VLJQLÀFDQW nongovernment organizations and the ADB, the UN, the World Bank, andportions of economic stimulus funds SULYDWH VHFWRU LQ $VLD DQG WKH 3DFLÀF other institutions have provided vitalduring the crisis to green growth and “Universities, too, are greening their support to the green developmentclean technology investments. campuses and curricula,” says the efforts underway in the region. And “While countries across the globe IRUPHU 81 RIÀFLDO ZKR LV FXUUHQWO this broad coalition of partners is whatare now rethinking their economies research professor at Stony Brook is needed in the future as well.and patterns of development in order University in New York. “Japan, [the “A lot of progress has beento minimize the kinds of shocks and People’s Republic of] China, and made since the 1992 Conference on [Republic of] Korea have major green Environment and Development in Rio,CLEAN CATCH $ PDQ WKURZV D ÀVKLQJ programs.” In Japan, the Fukushima and there is reason to be cautiouslynet over the Mekong River in Phnom earthquake and nuclear disaster “has optimistic about what comes in thePenh, Cambodia. Keeping water sources energized the government, business, future,” says Bindu Lohani, ADB vice-clean is one of the major issues facing and industry, and, importantly, the president for Knowledge ManagementAsia, which is under pressure to general public to go ‘green’ very and Sustainable Development.conserve this essential resource in the proactively and extensively.” “However, the challenges inIDFH RI JURZLQJ GHPDQG E IDVWJURZLQJ In another sign of the changing achieving green growth remaincities and industries. attitudes within the private sector, a numerous and varied,” he says. “This highlights the need for coordinated action and knowledge sharing to promote environmentally sustainable JURZWK LQ $VLD DQG WKH 3DFLÀFµ CARROT AND STICK APPROACH Among those challenges are thorny governance and regulatory issues. Carbon-polluting fossil fuels remain heavily subsidized in many countries. In many cases, entrenched business and political interests and corruption obstruct green policy changes. Proponents of green growth argue that ecological tax reform needs to PICTURE CREDIT: AFP take place to ensure equal treatment of traditional fuels and practices and clean technologies. They advocate the imposition of carbon taxes,10 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

improve environmental compliance. an economist and an environmentalist. Another change that would facilitate He acknowledges that Indonesia greater acceptance of the green growth can’t sustain the depletion of natural philosophy is a new approach to resources caused by its mining and measuring economic performance, plantation-based economy. For some experts say. The contention is that Indonesia, the path to a greener GDP needs to be adjusted to account economy would mean adding value to for such factors as resource depletion its exports, transforming copper, palm and pollution. oil, and other raw products into more UNEP’s recent Green Economy YDOXDEOH ÀQLVKHG JRRGV %XW KH VDV Report notes that “a major challenge is Indonesia’s efforts in this regard are reconciling the competing economic being thwarted by the cost of foreignSHIFTING GEARS A commuter rides past development aspirations of rich and technology, and the higher tariffs thattransmission towers in Beijing. Asia has poor countries in a world economy that Indonesia’s value-added productsmade solid progress in reducing poverty. is facing increasing climate change, confront when exported to the US andYet, experts say the only way to achieve energy insecurity, and ecological other developed countries.ORQJWHUP SURVSHULW LV WR PLQLPL]H WKH scarcity.” It contends that this is “That is an inequity in the way theimpact on the environment by using less possible through a green economy global market works,” he says, anenergy and resources. that offers “a development path that inequity that is blocking Indonesia reduces carbon dependency, promotes from moving faster toward a greenlevies on the use of nonrenewable UHVRXUFH DQG HQHUJ HIÀFLHQF DQG economy and preserving its naturalenergy and virgin materials, and lessens environmental degradation. resources. “We can’t solve this problemfees and charges on practices that As economic growth and investments on our own.”pollute the environment or waste become less dependent on liquidating Indonesia and other developingnatural resources, and they call for HQYLURQPHQWDO DVVHWV DQG VDFULÀFLQJ countries face a similar dilemma whentax breaks on production methods or environmental quality, both rich confronted with outside pressure toconsumption patterns that produce and poor countries can attain more shift from polluting fossil fuels togreen outcomes. One example cited by sustainable economic development.” renewable energy sources, he says.green growth advocates is the PRC’s But forging a consensus between “The technology for renewablesubstitution of a standard road tax developing and developed countries energy is expensive,” he says. “Whenwith a fuel tax that encourages energy on these issues may be the greatest the government is confronted withHIÀFLHQF challenge of all, says Indonesia’s Salim, the choice—food for the poor or The key is a mix of market incentives technology for renewable energy—itand government regulation, experts will opt for food for the poor.”say. Indeed, throughout the region policy “Without a strong and credible “The technology for makers face the daunting challenge ofcompliance enforcement system, no delivering environmentally sustainable renewable energyincentives framework will deliver development while satisfying thebehavioral changes necessary to is expensive. When economic demands of rapidlyachieve green growth,” says ADB’s the government is growing populations. The acceleratingAhmad. “For example, experiences migration of rural dwellers to cities confronted with thein forest management show that a across Asia presents the region withmoratorium on logging backed up by choice—food for the unprecedented infrastructure demands.incentives for sustainable management poor or technology for As Asia’s cities swell by 44 millionand protection can work better than people each year, policy makers are renewable energy—iteither approach on its own.” faced with the staggering prospect of The Asian Environmental will opt for food for the adding 20,000 urban dwellings, 250Compliance and Enforcement poor” kilometers of roads, and 6 million litersNetwork, formed in 2005, has allowed of potable water each day to meet theHQYLURQPHQWDO DJHQF RIÀFLDOV IURP ·,TPS :HSPT 0UKVULZPH»Z LTPULU[ soaring demands.around the region to compare notes as LU]PYVUTLU[HSPZ[ HUK ZZ[HPUHISL While acknowledging thethey attempt to enforce regulations and KL]LSVWTLU[ HK]VJH[L daunting challenge this presents,www.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 11

,5=09654,5;! ;/, )0. 9,(+ADB’s Ahmad contends it is also far beyond the means of government policies, economic incentives,a “great opportunity to design, budgets. ÀQDQFLDO PHFKDQLVPV QRUPDWLYHbuild, and operate infrastructure on The key is using limited public sector measures, technology? Asia’sprinciples of sustainability, including IXQGV WR OHYHUDJH IDU PRUH VLJQLÀFDQW challenge, as in other countries, willDFFHVVLELOLW HFRHIÀFLHQF DQG VRFLDO amounts of private capital for green be the imperative behavioral changeinclusiveness.” investments. toward a developmental paradigm of Complicating the enormous social Global venture capital investments sustainability, resilience, inclusiveness,and economic demands that the in clean technology soared from $2.0 DQG HTXLWDEOH EHQHÀWV IRU DOOµJRYHUQPHQWV RI $VLD DQG WKH 3DFLÀF billion in 2005 to $7.8 billion in 2010,will confront in the coming decades but only about 10% of that amount has GREENING THE GLOBAL ECONOMYare the mounting challenges posed found its way to the region. On 20–22 June 2012, world leaders,by climate change. ADB is among ADB has launched the Asia Climate development experts, environmentalthose advocating “ecosystem-based Change and Clean Energy Venture advocates, and other stakeholdersapproaches” to cope with the extreme Capital Initiative to increase that will gather in Rio de Janeiro for theeffects of climate change. One such ratio. ADB aims to nurture the rise pivotal United Nations Conferenceexample is making additional efforts of clean technology companies in on Sustainable Development. Rio+20,to protect mangroves rather than the region’s developing countries as the conference has been dubbed,building sea walls as a buffer against by supplementing the investments will mark the 20th anniversary of theincreasingly violent storms—efforts of venture capital funds with historic United Nations Conference onthat are not only cost-effective, but also equity infusions. The long-term Environment and Development in Rio,preserve vital ecosystems and generate goal is to stimulate the movement which set in motion the global driveRWKHU HFRQRPLF DQG VRFLDO EHQHÀWV of venture capital toward climate for sustainable development. It will The political will of governments change mitigation and clean energy also coincide with the 10th anniversarywill be further tested as the investments in the region. of the World Summit on Sustainabletransformation to a greener economy “Energy, urban development, Development, which reinvigorated theunfolds. As many as 50 million green transport, infrastructure, water, movement.jobs could be in Asia by 2025, the wastes, [and] biodiversity are all The conference has three statedInternational Labour Organization interconnected,” says Nay Htun, the objectives: to secure renewedestimates, but millions of others will be IRUPHU 81 RIÀFLDO ´7KH SDWKZD political commitment to sustainablelost as the fossil fuel industry and other toward greening is an integrated development, assess the progressLQHIÀFLHQW RU ORZWHFKQRORJ VHFWRUV and multisector, multidisciplinary and implementation gaps in previousdecline. This will require interim efforts approach. The major challenge agreements, and address new andto cushion the impact. is how to integrate. What are the emerging challenges. But the theme The transition to a sustainable PICTURE CREDIT: AFP (BANGKOK FLOOD), ADB PHOTO/GERHARD JOREN (SOLAR POWER)economy in the region promises to becostly, but green growth advocatescontend that delay or inaction iseven more expensive. Environmentalmitigation costs in developingcountries will top $100 billion by 2030.$VLD DQG 3DFLÀF DORQH IDFHV DQQXDOcosts estimated at $40 billion to adaptits economies to the demands ofenvironmental sustainability—amountsBRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERBuddhist monks build a bridge aboveÁRRGZDWHUV LQ %DQJNRN LQ 1RYHPEHU $ UHFHQW UHSRUW E WKH $VLDQDevelopment Bank calls climatechange “the most dramatic symptom ofunsustainable development.”12 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

that will dominate the Rio sessions is on sustainable development. I amthe urgent drive to rebalance poverty hopeful that building upon thiseradication and economic development consensus, Rio+20 will take sustainableefforts in an increasingly fragile global development to the comprehensiveenvironment, experts and advocates paradigm of greening and the linkagesay. with poverty eradication.” $FURVV $VLD DQG WKH 3DFLÀF JUHHQ But Indonesia’s Salim is skepticalgrowth and the Rio conference are that the conference will produce atopics of intense discussions these dramatic step forward in the struggledays. In early October, about 100 to achieve global green growth. HeKLJKOHYHO JRYHUQPHQW RIÀFLDOV notes that the US will be facing aand experts from around the world presidential election in November 2012,convened in New Delhi, India, for and sees little prospect that the countrya dialogue on “Green Economy and will risk a bold initiative that mightInclusive Growth.” The meeting, alienate voters. Without US leadership,organized by the Government of India Europe is unlikely to support boldand the Rio+20 Secretariat, fostered steps, he says.a discussion on how green economy “Expect beautiful speeches,” heinitiatives can advance poverty says, “but I don’t think there will beeradication and social development HARNESSING SOLAR POWER The meaningful progress.”efforts by enhancing food and energy largest solar photovoltaic power plant Steiner is more hopeful.security for the poor. Later that month, in Asia lies on the plains of Lopburi, “By all accounts, we are alreadythe Republic of Korea hosted the Asia– Thailand. moving toward a green economy,”3DFLÀF 5HJLRQDO 3UHSDUDWRU 0HHWLQJ he says. “The economic imperativefor Rio+20, co-organized by the UN example of the PRC, Japan, and the WR DFKLHYH JUHDWHU UHVRXUFH HIÀFLHQFEconomic and Social Commission for Republic of Korea coming together and develop new technologies$VLD DQG WKH 3DFLÀF 81(3 DQG $% to create a trilateral partnership to demands that we must also considerThe meetings were something of a achieve low-carbon growth across the environmental and social aspectsdress rehearsal for the Rio conference, the region will set the tone. “These of this development. The Rio+20as participants attempted to reach a initiatives are setting the stage for the summit will be an opportunity to guideconsensus on critical components of type of cooperation we expect to see on this development and to accelerategreen development. a global scale at the Rio+20 Summit,” and scale-up its implementation. If While the nations of Asia and the he says. “In addition, we expect the governments fail to create the enabling3DFLÀF DUH PDNLQJ JUHDW HIIRUWV WR private sector and nongovernment frameworks needed for a globalcome together and speak as one voice organizations in the region to be transition to a green economy, they riskat Rio, a global consensus promises to increasingly vocal participants in the ORVLQJ RXW RQ WKH PDQ EHQHÀWV WKDWEH PXFK PRUH GLIÀFXOW 7KH DJHQGD process.” could result from mutual collaboration.for sustainable development and But opinions are divided as to Also, in the long term, countries thatgreen growth has been fragmented whether the differences between are already setting the pace in this areaby a proliferation of environmental developing and developed nations and will have an advantage—from creatingtreaties over the past 2 decades. The RWKHU JDSV FDQ EH VXIÀFLHQWO EULGJHG JUHDWHU HIÀFLHQFLHV E XSJUDGLQJ WKHLURio conference offers an opportunity to produce a meaningful political buildings and industries to generatingto bring about a more cohesive effort statement on how the global drive for huge cost savings by leapfroggingto help green development come to green development will proceed. developed countries.”fruition. “Major conferences like Rio+20 “Rio+20 can be just another date in “All of the governments raise considerable awareness among the calendar,” Steiner concludes, “orparticipating in the Rio+20 conference political leaders on the issues being an opportunity to evolve sustainablewill have a historic opportunity to addressed,” says Nay Htun. “This development to meet the persistent andpromote a green economy as a vehicle is always an important step leading emerging challenges of the 21st centuryfor achieving sustainable development WR DFWLRQV LQFOXGLQJ LQ $VLD²3DFLÀF while harvesting the opportunities for aand poverty eradication,” says the The Earth Summit at Rio 20 years fundamentally fresh, focused, and fairUN’s Steiner. He is hopeful that the ago raised awareness and consensus future for close to 7 billion people.” Qwww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 13

;/, )0. 70*;<9, Atmospheric Efforts Already among the top threats to health, outdoor air pollution is a concern in cities across developing Asia. Though the situation is improving in many areas, challenges remain as populations shift to urban centers and growing economies produce more vehicles and industry.Air quality indicatorsSelected indicators; annual ambient levels in selected Asian cities, averaged, in micrograms per cubic meter. Particulate matter (PM10a) Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) Sulfur dioxide (SO2) Associated with lung cancer, cardiopulmo- Long-term exposure may impair lung Can affect lungs and eyes. Evidence of nary disease; “Estimated to cause about 9% function and increase the risk of respiratory links to child respiratory disease and of lung cancer deaths, 5% of cardiopulmo- symptoms, including persistent cough in cardiac diseases, and increased mortality nary deaths and 1% of respiratory infection children, and exacerbate asthma. rate. Primary cause of acid rain. deaths,” according to the World Health Organization. 100micrograms per cubic meter 80 Concentration in 60 40 20 0 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008Deaths Due to Outdoor Air PollutionPer 100,000 population; 2008 data. 70 67 60 Listed as having a rate of less 49 50 than 1 per 100,000: Bhutan, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Mauritius, 40 40 FSM, Nauru, Niue, Palau, 35 Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, and Tuvalu 28 30 25 21 20 14 14 16 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 12 13 6 6 7 7 8 10 4 4 4 4 2 2 2 0 Lao PDR Nepal Papua New Guinea Cambodia Sri Lanka Tajikistan Vanuatu Bangladesh Thailand Malaysia Togo Maldives Fiji Indonesia Myanmar Afghanistan Kyrgyzstan Philippines Uzbekistan Viet Nam Turkmenistan India Mauritania Azerbaijan Mongolia Pakistan Singapore PRC Kazakhstan Georgia Ukrainea PM10 = particulate matter of less than 10 microns in diameterNote: FSM = Federated States of Micronesia, GDP = gross domestic product, Lao PDR = Lao People’s Democratic Republic, PRC = People’s Republic of China. RESEARCH AND DESIGN: MARK BLACKWELL14 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

Growing economy and air pollution Change in urban particulate matterImprovements in concentration of some pollutants despiteeconomic growth and rises in energy use have been attributed concentration, by subregionto direct efforts to manage air quality. Cleaner fuels, growing energy efficiency, and falling emissions have been credited with much of the decline in urban PM10Percent Change in Concentration of pollutants concentrations.and of economic indicators in Asia Ambient PM10 concentration, All Asia Electricity generation micrograms per cubic meter PRC140 Electricity consumption Other Southeast Asia 250 GDP 9% India120 PM10 12 Other South Asia SO2 High-income Asia100 200 80 79% 60 150 65% 40 20 100 0 –20%–20 50–40 –32%–60 0 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 1990 1995 2000 2005Change in urban SO2 intensity 143 Lao PDRPercent change from 1990 to 2000 in SO2 intensity, tons of anthropogenicSO2 emissions per GDP in 1995 US$ 150 69 Sri Lanka 53 Singapore 120 45 Tajikistan 25 Indonesia Papua New Guinea 90 13 Kazakhstan Republic of Korea Solomon Islands 17 Pakistan 11 Thailand 7 Cambodia Turkmenistan 60 Bangladesh Uzbekistan Philippines Kyrgyzstan 3 Tonga Mongolia Viet Nam Malaysia Armenia Vanuatu 3 FSM Georgia Bhutan Kiribati Nepal 30 India PRC Fiji 0 –1 –3 –7 –9 –16 –17 –18 –30 –25 –26 –29 –31 –31 –34 –34 –43 –43 –44 –49 –60 –74 –90 –76 Sources: World Health Organization (WHO).Global Health Observatory Data Repository. http://apps.who.int/ghodata (accessed 28 November 2001); Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) Center, 2010. Air Quality in Asia: Status and Trends, 2010 Edition. Pasig City, Philippines; WHO. http://www.who.int/gho/phe/outdoor_air_pollution/en/ (accessed 28 Novermber 2011); WHO. Health Aspects of Air Pollution with Particulate Matter, Ozone and Nitrogen Dioxide. Report on a WHO Working Group Bonn, Germany, 13–15 January 2003. www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf__le/0005/112199/E79097.pdf (accessed 28 November 2011); WHO. Air Quality Guidelines for Particulate Matter, Ozone, Nitrogen Dioxide and Sulfur Dioxide, Global Update 2005. Summary of Risk Assessment. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2006/WHO_SDE_PHE_OEH_06.02_eng.pdf (accessed 28 November 2011); WHO. Air Quality and Health. www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/ (accessed 28 November 2011); HEI International Scientific Oversight Committee. 2010. Outdoor Air Pollution and Health in the Developing Countries of Asia: A Comprehensive Review. Special Report 18. Health Effects Institute, Boston, MA.www.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 15

,5=09654,5;! ;/, )0. =60*, Natural CapitalistAn influential thinker on the environment explains why the planet cannot cope with infinite economic growth, and why Bhutan’s gross national happiness index is no joke BY John OtisA shok Khosla is one of the world’s leading experts on the environment and sustainabledevelopment. He is also a pioneer.In the 1960s, Khosla was part of ateam that designed and taught theÀUVW XQGHUJUDGXDWH FRXUVH RQ WKHenvironment at Harvard University.One of his students was Al Gore. Born in India in 1940, Khosla hasjumped from academia to governmentto business to civil society, all thewhile pursuing a green agenda. Afterspending 22 years studying andteaching overseas, he returned to hiscountry where he became the foundingdirector of the Government of India’s2IÀFH RI (QYLURQPHQWDO 3ODQQLQJ DQG&RRUGLQDWLRQ WKH ÀUVW VXFK DJHQF LQ Ddeveloping country. As one of the directors of the correspondent John Otis about the on chemical pollution, famine, andUnited Nations Environment challenges of sustainable development, population growth and that was aboutProgram (UNEP), Khosla designed the looming possibility of a resource it. In the mid 1960s, because of theand launched Infoterra, the global crisis in Asia, and the misconceptions work of Rachel Carson and others,environmental information exchange. surrounding the term green growth. concerns also began to grow aboutIn 1982, he left the United Nations contamination of our food chain, orto found Development Alternatives, DA: How did you become an acid rain. We became inspired bya Delhi-based nongovernment environmentalist? having to react to this one-sided view.organization devoted to promoting AK: I saw a lot of poverty and misery We came to the conclusion very earlycommercially viable, environmentally as a refugee and I thought that it in the game that environmentalism wasfriendly technologies. In 2002, he shouldn’t have to be like that. I became meaningless unless it was combinedwas awarded the prestigious UNEP determined to learn everything I could with the issues of society and humanSasakawa Environment Prize. The that would help me contribute to a development.selection committee said Khosla’s work better India. While many students“has had a large ripple effect not only and professionals were emigrating DA: What’s your view of Asia’sin India but around the world.” out of the country, I knew I was unprecedented economic growth? Khosla is currently president of the coming back to India and I wanted to AK: One problem is that grossInternational Union for Conservation be prepared. At Harvard, I worked domestic product (GDP) growth hasof Nature, an alliance of conservation with Roger Revelle, a giant in the become a sacrosanct goal in its own PICTURE CREDIT: AFPDJHQFLHV WKDW IRFXVHV RQ ÀQGLQJ realm of science whose work led to right. The Indian government talksworkable solutions to the world’s most the discovery of climate change. This about GDP growth as if it’s the onlypressing environmental problems. was way back in the 1960s when the thing that counts. So does the People’sHe spoke with Development Asia environment movement was focused Republic of China (PRC). So does the16 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

United States. So does everybody. But rivers, and groundwater are beingcontinued exponential growth that “mined” without replacement anddepends on the use of more and more “The word ‘growth’ therefore lost every year. This is soPDWHULDOV IURP D ÀQLWH UHVRXUFH EDVH carries a connotation obvious that no one can deny it. Butwill hit a dead end sooner or later. Asia the people who really understand thisstarted out as a kind of workshop for which I think is very are not in mainstream economics, andindustrialized countries. Now Asia unhealthy: that it’s a there are not enough of them to make ais becoming industrialized in its own desirable aim to keep difference. As for the costs of reform, ifright. But it’s happening mainly by you change the patterns of productioncopycatting Western and Northern on growing. It is not, and consumption right now, it will costmodels that haven’t worked and from unless one wishes to much less. If action is delayed and iswhich people are now trying to save be like a cancer” forced upon us, it will come at a muchthemselves. These models are totally higher cost.inappropriate in terms of resource ·(ZOVR 2OVZSHmanagement, energy, and water use, DA: Could Asia change its tax policies toand the treatment of human beings and in Bhutan, and even in India where foment a green agenda?nature. So the word “growth” carries we’ve had some highly dedicated AK: If you want to discourage bada connotation which I think is very government ministers. But they have things—like resource consumption,unhealthy: that it’s a desirable aim to gained very little sustained traction. ZDVWH FUHDWLRQ DQG LQHIÀFLHQF³RXkeep on growing. It is not, unless one Most political leaders and captains should be taxing those things. And youwishes to be like a cancer. of industry don’t have any questions should subsidize the good things, like regarding the negative aspects of employment and the creation of jobs.DA: But economic growth has also growth at all. Zero. Nada. Zip. It’s But over the last 70 or 80 years, systemshelped legions of Asians move up in the not just the Asian governments. have been designed to tax the goodworld. Most if not all governments are like things, such as income, and encourageAK: Yes, half a billion people have been this. They represent the interests of the bad things, such as resourcepulled out of poverty. But tell me how the people who get them elected. extraction and wasteful use of energy.many people have been left behind in And those people are the rich, the That makes no sense whatsoever.poverty. And that’s a larger number. industrialists, and the business people. We have got to have a fundamentalWe have actually destroyed far more These are vested interests; people rethinking of our tax structure. But[natural capital] than we have created. with their snouts in the trough who I don’t see many governments orThis is true in the PRC and India and are getting a great deal out of the even economists proposing changes.it is now beginning to happen all over present system. They have the power, And once you get locked into theseSoutheast Asia too. India has lost large money, connections, and ability to stop tax systems, you can’t get out oftracts of its forests and wetlands. The anything from changing. them because large bureaucraciesPRC has neglected its resource base and government agencies acquire ato the extent that its rivers are drying DA: Do you see any major businesses permanent life of their own.up, its soils are degrading, and vast moving toward greener practices?areas must, for example, deal with dust AK: You tell me. Who are you talking DA: Do you see Asia heading toward anstorms. about? Tell me which mining company environmental catastrophe? has improved its performance vis-à-vis AK: The short answer is “yes.” SimpleDA: Are Asian nations discussing the people or nature? There must surely be computer models have already shownlimitations of growth? some companies. But I’d rather you tell this. So did the 1972 book The LimitsAK: Mahatma Gandhi raised many me who they are because none comes to Growth. Things are unfolding evenof these same questions 100 years ago to the top of my mind very easily. faster than the book predicted—thatand they are all coming back into the within 100 years from its publicationmainstream discussion today. Many DA: Yet there is a strong economic in 1972, we are running into a situationcivil society organizations and some argument in favor of a more sustainable of overshoot and collapse. The world’sacademics question the way things model. population and economy increase;are going. There is a growing body of AK: Literally, trillions of dollars in food demand continues to grow; andforward-thinking political leadership. natural capital such as forests, soil, agricultural and industrial productionI see that in the Republic of Korea, water sources in the form of glaciers, keep on going. But the resource basewww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 17

2/6:3(! ;/, )0. =60*, HAPPY PEOPLE Bhutanese students cross a long bridge on their way to school. The King of Bhutan has made it a national priority to raise gross national happiness, which he considers a better measure of prosperity than gross domestic product (GDP). opportunities where everyone can have a job, and a decent life, and can send their kids to school. But that’s not what’s happening in any of theseand the systems that absorb our wastes to recognize environmental issues. But places.are breaking down. Today, the Arctic governments can repackage them inice is melting at a rapid rate and could different ways and continue to do what DA: Why not?be gone in 30 years, something that they are doing. So the treaties are not AK: There’s this idea that green growthhasn’t happened in tens of thousands always lending to correct outcomes. is a hard thing to do. Most peopleof years. It’s dramatic. We are way Industrialized countries are playing a SHUFHLYH LW DV VDFULÀFLQJ WKLQJV ZHahead of schedule. The Limits to Growth very negative role because they want are supposed to value for the goodwas talking only about 100 years. to palm off the costs of things they’ve of the planet, like switching fromAlready, within 40 years, we see all the been doing for the past 200 years onto comfortable fossil fuels to less familiarsigns of overshoot and collapse. poor countries. Climate change, the and renewable energies like wind and loss of species, and the destruction of solar. But I don’t think that’s a goodDA: Will it be overshoot and collapse that habitats have not been caused by poor way to pursue green growth. GreenÀQDOO EULQJ DERXW GHHSVHDWHG FKDQJHV countries. And yet in international growth should be something that’sin the region? negotiations, the rich countries a great privilege to have. We have toAK: Our governments may gradually cynically want the poor countries to transform the thinking of people andstart to react a little but reform is not take responsibility for doing something institutions so that they value thingslikely to come from within; it is likely about it without themselves making that are good for them in their ownto be a waiting game for a while until any commitment at all. ULJKW ,I RX FRXOG UHGHÀQH WKH WHUP WRWKH VHD OHYHOV ULVH VLJQLÀFDQWO WKH ÀVK be something positive, that involvesare gone, there is no water to drink, DA: What about the concept of green changes in consumption patterns andand hungry people are rioting in the growth as an alternative path forward? production systems to make human lifestreets for reasonably priced food. This AK: Green growth does not simply PRUH LQWHUHVWLQJ PRUH IXOÀOOLQJ DQGcould be in another 10 years, maybe mean making power plants more happier, then the term green growth20, which is not long—during our HIÀFLHQW RU SODQWLQJ PRUH WUHHV ,W LV would be okay. But the concept oflifetimes. The fundamental premise of about making fundamental changes green growth also has to be temperedmodern development is that the living in our consumption patterns and with the understanding that youstandards of every generation should our production systems. Those FDQ·W NHHS JURZLQJ IRUHYHU RQ D ÀQLWHbe better than those of earlier ones. who are currently in positions of resource base. Sooner or later, the wordHow are the governments, companies, privilege unfortunately see green “growth” will trip over itself. PICTURE CREDIT: ADB PHOTO/JAMES HUTCHISON, AFP (INDONESIA)international development agencies growth as a means to continue theirgoing to explain the circumstances predatory patterns of exploiting the DA: Aren’t there some spots on the mapthat lead to a rapid, though avoidable, earth’s resources and wasting large where green growth is catching on?deterioration in the lives of our amounts of these while proselytizing AK: In Bhutan they are pursuingchildren? Very soon change will be to others that they must behave more sustainable development with greatforced upon governments, businesses, responsibly vis-à-vis the environment. dedication and the people haveand agencies by public opinion or Perpetual, lopsided, resource-guzzling wholeheartedly adopted the idea ofinternational treaties—or major events JURZWK FDQQRW EH VXVWDLQHG RQ D ÀQLWH gross national happiness as a societalsuch as Hurricane Katrina or the planet or in a fair and just world. goal far superior to GDP. They don’tFukushima Tsunami. Green growth is about an equitable VHH LW DV D VDFULÀFH 7KH VHH LW DV D bootstrapping of the economy so that great privilege and the best way to live.DA: What’s been the impact of HYHURQH EHQHÀWV IURP LW ,W PHDQV DQ From the King and the Prime Ministerinternational climate treaties? environmentally and economically on down to the little schoolchildren,AK: 7KH IRUFH JRYHUQPHQW RIÀFLDOV sound way of creating economic they are basically willing to say: “No,18 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

thank you; we don’t want the kind of RI D VRFLHW" *3 LV VXFK D ÁDZHG society, which has the diversity andlife ‘modern’ societies have become instrument that it actually includes the anger and the willpower to try toaddicted to. We are interested in having the cutting down of trees—which is stop the inexorable drive with a foota full life with clean, healthy food and the destruction of natural capital—as pressing the accelerator pedal towardgood education.” And they made their positive income. It’s such a ridiculously the cliff.commitments. That doesn’t mean every bad measurement, yet GDP is acceptedBhutanese has made that commitment, by the experts who run our world DA: What role can new technology play?but a very large majority has. as being the only way to describe AK: Nature-based technological progress. On the other hand, if you tell innovations can help save humanity.DA: Is Bhutan’s experiment with gross them about gross national happiness, There’s a white beetle from Indonesianational happiness having much impact they will laugh. Still, these are from which we can learn about howelsewhere in Asia? concepts which, like others, have their to make a cement substitute withoutAK: What is the purpose of life? The tipping points. Once GDP becomes having to use any energy or highUnited States Constitution begins dysfunctional and disreputable, people temperatures. Spider silk is strongerwith: “The pursuit of happiness” as will start looking for something else to than titanium per unit of weight andbeing next to only life and liberty. describe progress. Some work on this could be used on things normallySo even 250 years ago, people were has already started, such as the [United made with aluminum, titanium, ortalking about it. What’s more, the Nations Development Programme’s] steel. These technologies could haveshortcomings of measuring progress Human Development Index. their renaissance in Asia because theythrough GDP are horrendous. It does ÀW VRPH RI WKH SKLORVRSKLHV RI WKLVnot include the work of nearly half the DA: Do you expect any concrete region. They also provide Asia withpopulation—housewives—or the loss progress to come out of the 2012 Rio an opportunity because we haven’tof environmental assets such as forests Summit? yet made all those investments inor soils, or the breakdown of social AK: 7KH ÀUVW JOREDO HQYLURQPHQWDO traditional infrastructure. For example,capital such as family and community. conference was in 1972 in Stockholm. we don’t have all the roads thatAnd that is only the beginning of a Twenty years later we had the preordain the car as a main mode ofwhole litany of shortcomings of this Rio Earth Summit, then came transport. Why not try other ways, likeso-called “measure” of societal Johannesburg, and now another one airships?progress. Who, other than an in Rio. In between we’ve had theeconomist, would consider this a Millennium Development Goals. Yet DA: What is Asia’s potential role inmeaningful way to gauge the health the world isn’t better off. I don’t want setting a greener agenda? to sound like a one-string guitar, but AK: Asia is in a position to play aGLOBAL WARNING An activist dresses the vested interests are the root of major leadership role in the newas a penguin at a demonstration held the problem. The people who call the thinking that is required to make theduring an international climate change shots are not really very worried about world a better place. It can set a realconference in Indonesia. Khosla sees what happens to the rest of us—now example by setting new kinds of social,civil society playing a major role in or in the future. But though nothing economic, and political goals that areconvincing governments to address much has happened, each one of us not simply copycat goals from the Westclimate change issues. keeps saying: “If we don’t try now or the North, but ones that make sense then it will get even worse.” So we all to our traditions and cultures. The go to these summits and we all try to civilizations of Asia are quite ancient do something. And most of us keep and have centuries, if not millennia, of hoping that maybe something will thinking about how to live peacefully come out of it. and in harmony with nature. But it seems to me they have temporarily DA: What other developments give you forgotten many of these lessons. Deep optimism? down these lessons should still be AK: One can be optimistic that after available to them. And if they access a few encounters with catastrophe them soon, they could bring about people will realize that things have VLJQLÀFDQW FKDQJHV WKDW ZRXOG EH D to change. I also think that if there is model for the rest of the world. If not, hope for the future it is because of civil we are in real trouble. Qwww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 19

,5=09654,5; Greenback Growth The divide between environmentalists and policy makers often remains wide, but bridges are being built BY Gregg JonesE nvironmental activists for sided. Corporations could lay out in the region’s natural capital. years have stressed the spreadsheets with revenue projections Lately, however, conservation- importance of preserving the for a proposed project, while minded policy makers and planet’s biological diversity. conservationists struggled to quantify HQYLURQPHQWDO DFWLYLVWV DUH ÀQGLQJ DBut in a region that is home to two- WKH ÀQDQFLDO EHQHÀWV RI UHVRXUFH PRUH OHYHO SODLQJ ÀHOGthirds of the world’s poor, it has SURWHFWLRQ ,Q WKH PHDQWLPH LQ $VLD Changes underway in Viet NamSURYHQ SROLWLFDOO GLIÀFXOW IRU $VLDQ and around the globe, legal and illegal LOOXVWUDWH WKH QHZ GQDPLFV $IWHUgovernments to turn away corporations commercial interests cut forests and years of mangrove destruction toand their cash-generating proposals for mangroves, mined the landscape, and PDNH ZD IRU VKULPS IDUPV DQG ÀVKexploiting scarce natural resources. harvested rare plants and animals— ponds, the government invested The debate has been largely one- setting in motion a precipitous decline more than $1 million in planting and20 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

protecting nearly 12,000 hectares of control, and resource management,” the vital coastal trees. The return on its 6WHLQHU VDV DW WKH ODXQFK RI D HDUORQJ investment has been impressive: The celebration of biodiversity in 2010. “It “If you factor the true 6RXWKHDVW $VLDQ QDWLRQ LV QRZ VHHLQJ is a similar story in respect to all of value of coral reefs into annual savings of more than $7 million the planet’s nature-based assets, from in dike maintenance, a return that forests and freshwaters to mountains economic planning, it corporations around the world might and soils.” is likely that far more envy. Time is running short, he warns. rational and sustainable The loss of biodiversity—the totality “The urgency of the situation of the planet’s living organisms and the demands that as a global community choices would be made ecological complexes they inhabit—is we not only reverse the rate of loss, in terms of development, now recognized as perhaps the planet’s but that we stop the loss altogether emissions and pollution preeminent threat. and begin restoring the ecological $VLD DQG WKH 3DFLÀF LV KRPH WR PDQ infrastructure that has been damaged control, and resource of the earth’s richest ecosystems, says and degraded over the previous management” 1HVVLP $KPDG GLUHFWRU RI $VLDQ century or so.” Development Bank’s Environment $ FULWLFDO ÀUVW VWHS LQ WKDW GLUHFWLRQ ·(JOPT :[LPULY <UP[LK 5H[PVUZ DQG 6DIHJXDUGV LYLVLRQ $URXQG has been a UN-guided initiative UKLYZLJYL[HY`NLULYHS HUK of the world’s plants and animals are designed to calculate the value of L_LJ[P]L KPYLJ[VY VM [OL <UP[LK 5H[PVUZ ,U]PYVUTLU[ 7YVNYHTTL IRXQG KHUH DORQJ ZLWK DERXW nature and the cost of lost natural of the planet’s remaining coral reefs FDSLWDO $V D UHVXOW LQ PLQLVWHULDO DQG RI LWV ZHWODQGV 3URWHFWLQJ buildings and conference centers these resources is not just a matter of DURXQG $VLD WKH HFRQRPLFV RI RI (FRVVWHPV DQG %LRGLYHUVLW 7((%

environmental stewardship; it is also biodiversity is the focal point of 2Q WKH ÁLS VLGH RI WKH HTXDWLRQ DQ about economic growth. Ecosystem attention. annual investment of $45.0 billion in services are worth 10–100 times the cost global conservation efforts would yield of protecting them. ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIODIVERSITY $5.0 trillion in ecosystem savings, the $FKLP 6WHLQHU D 8QLWHG 1DWLRQV The efforts to quantify and save study found. under-secretary-general and executive global biodiversity are being The TEEB initiative grew out of a director of the United Nations driven by the precarious state of 2007 proposal by the environment (QYLURQPHQW 3URJUDPPH 81(3

the world’s declining ecosystems. ministers of the Group of Eight leading cites an example that is critical to $QQXDO ELRGLYHUVLW ORVVHV UDQJH LQGXVWULDOL]HG FRXQWULHV DQG ÀYH WKH VXUYLYDO RI PLOOLRQV RI $VLDQV between $2.0 trillion and $4.5 trillion, PDMRU GHYHORSLQJ FRXQWULHV %UD]LO coral reefs. Even as these vital DFFRUGLQJ WR WKH NH ÀQGLQJV RI DQ the People’s Republic of China, tropical ecosystems are degraded and international initiative, The Economics ,QGLD 0H[LFR DQG 6RXWK $IULFD

WR destroyed at a soaring rate, their value has been overlooked by national policy makers and international development institutions, he says. “If you factor the true value of coral reefs into economic planning, it is likely3,&785( &5(,7 -83,7(5 ,0$*(6 021(< 75((

$)3 that far more rational and sustainable choices would be made in terms of development, emissions and pollution CONVERSION COST India has created a system of compensatory payments for converting forest land to other use. Payments go to improving the country’s forest cover, conserving wildlife such as the Royal Bengal tiger, and creating rural jobs. www.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 21

,5=09654,5;AMAZON OF THE SEAS A local diverZDWFKHV GLIIHUHQW YDULHWLHV RI ÀVK ZHDYHthrough a maze of corals in PuertoGalera, Philippines. The country is partof the Coral Triangle Initiative, whichwas formed to save one of the world’smost diverse and threatened marineecosystems.value the economics of biodiversityloss. Germany and the EuropeanCommission launched the study, withVXEVHTXHQW ÀQDQFLDO VXSSRUW E WKH by a mangrove forest.UNEP and several other European 2QH H[DPSOH WKDW 7((% FLWHV LV Dcountries. The objectives included “Nature is the source of FRVW²EHQHÀW DQDOVLV RI FRQYHUWLQJdrawing attention to the global much value to us every mangroves into shrimp farms inHFRQRPLF EHQHÀWV RI ELRGLYHUVLW southern Thailand. With governmenthighlighting the growing cost of day, and yet it mostly subsidies, commercial shrimp farmsbiodiversity loss and ecosystem bypasses markets, generate returns of about $1,220 perdegradation, and providing practical escapes pricing, and hectare. But local communities losesolutions, such as establishing an about $12,000 per hectare in ecosystemobjective global standard for natural defies valuation” services, stemming from the loss ofcapital accounting. wood and non-wood forest products, /HG E 3DYDQ 6XNKGHY D VHQLRU ·7H]HU :ROKL] H ZLUPVY IHURLY ÀVKHULHV DQG FRDVWDO SURWHFWLRQ WKH H[ +L[ZJOL )HURbanker at Deutsche Bank, TEEB study notes.UHOHDVHG WKH ÀUVW RI ÀYH UHSRUWV LQ $URXQG $VLD IUHVKZDWHU DQG FRDVWDO2008. Its studies have highlighted the wetlands are now seen as providerseconomic losses and human costs )RU GHFDGHV HQYLURQPHQWDO DFWLYLVWV of economically valuable ecosystemcaused by vanishing biodiversity. have struggled to convince policy services. Using new accounting tools, “Nature is the source of much value makers of the hidden costs of lost wetlands around the city of Vientiane,to us every day, and yet it mostly biodiversity and natural resources. the Lao People’s Democratic Republic,bypasses markets, escapes pricing, )URP D SROLF PDNHU·V SHUVSHFWLYH for example, have been estimated toDQG GHÀHV YDOXDWLRQµ 6XNKGHY ZULWHV the value of exploiting resources was SURYLGH PLOOLRQ LQ ÁRRG SUHYHQWLRQin the initial report. “This lack of far easier to measure: The government services.valuation is, we are discovering, an sells permits to allow a company The hidden costs of forest loss,underlying cause for the observed to mine copper or gold, cut timber, a major problem across much ofdegradation of ecosystems and the loss RU FDWFK ÀVK DQG WKH FRPSDQ LQ $VLD KDYH DOVR EHHQ UHYHDOHG E WKHof biodiversity.” WXUQ SDV WD[HV DQG SURÀWV IURP LWV QHZ HIIRUWV 2QH VWXG KDV YDOXHG Biodiversity loss is critical to global activities. pollination services provided by forestsdevelopment efforts because poverty, But what went unrecognized—or LQ 6XODZHVL ,QGRQHVLD DW DERXW climate change, biodiversity, and the at least unacknowledged in policy per hectare. The conversion of forestedloss of ecosystems like tropical reefs or circles—for decades was the cost of areas to farmland and other uses isforests are “inextricably intertwined,” depleting those resources, and the expected to reduce those pollinationthe TEEB report notes. Indeed, resulting loss of ecosystem biodiversity. VHUYLFHV ZLWK VLJQLÀFDQW HFRQRPLFWKH VWXG ÀQGV WKDW WKH SRRU ZHUH Now, the use of recently developed consequences for coffee growers:WSLFDOO WKH LPPHGLDWH EHQHÀFLDULHV accounting tools and techniques is LHOGV UHGXFHG E XS WR DQG QHWof ecosystem services and biodiversity. allowing policy makers to weigh the revenues per hectare will decline by as“The livelihoods most affected are negative impact of certain activities PXFK DV RYHU WKH QH[W GHFDGHVsubsistence farming, animal husbandry, against the value of ecosystem services, $W WKH &RQIHUHQFH RI WKH 3DUWLHV WRÀVKLQJ DQG LQIRUPDO IRUHVWU³PRVW such as the carbon sequestration and the United Nations Convention onof the world’s poor are dependent on water cycle regulation of a tropical Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan,them.” forest, or the storm protection provided in 2010, World Bank President Robert22 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

HEART OF BORNEO Clouds cover a forested mountain in West Kalimantan province on Borneo island. In 2007, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, and Malaysia signed a declaration to protect the Heart of Borneo, where only about half of the original forests remain. its development plans, has been a leader in protecting biodiversity in an XUEDQ VHWWLQJ $PRQJ LWV ZLOGHUQHVV DUHDV RSHQ WR WKH SXEOLF DUH 6XQJHL Zoellick announced a 5-year pilot have agreed to pay $2.8 million to more Buloh, a mangrove park restored from program to expand the efforts to use than 2,000 forest-dwelling households shrimp farms, and Bukit Timah Nature innovative accounting tools to measure to help protect watersheds that Reserve, which encompasses primary the value of ecosystems. “It’s a way of supply the hydropower plants. This and secondary tropical rainforest. trying to help people understand better will increase incomes for subsistence The city of Nagoya, Japan, has also in economic terms the value of natural households while reducing operating distinguished itself by introducing a wealth,” says Zoellick. costs and improving the long-term system of tradable development rights sustainability of the plants. to help preserve its vanishing green COMPENSATING NATURE 2Q D JOREDO VFDOH HIIRUWV DUH space. Developers who wish to exceed $VLD LV DOVR DW WKH IRUHIURQW RI RWKHU underway to reduce greenhouse gas limits on high-rise buildings must buy new methods designed to address the emissions through a program known as and conserve green areas at risk of loss of biodiversity and ecosystem Reducing Emissions from Deforestation GHYHORSPHQW 2WKHU LQFHQWLYHV LQFOXGH degradation, including payments for DQG )RUHVW HJUDGDWLRQ RU 5( discounted bank loans for developers HFRVVWHP VHUYLFHV 3(6

SURJUDPV :LWK $VLD·V SRSXODWLRQ UDSLGO that incorporate more green space with $ 6XSUHPH &RXUW UXOLQJ LQ shifting from rural areas to urban their projects. India resulted in the creation of a centers, a major challenge for the City dwellers, along with rural system of compensatory payments region is addressing the ecosystem communities and businesses, can for converting various types of forest impact of overpopulated cities. Urban H[SHFW WR UHFHLYH EHQHÀWV IURP land to other use. Values were assigned DFWLYLWLHV DOUHDG DFFRXQW IRU DERXW VXFK HIIRUWV $W WKH QDWLRQDO DQG according to the use of the land, of the world’s energy consumption international levels, the TEEB ranging from timber and ecotourism DQG RI JUHHQKRXVH JDV HPLVVLRQV researchers note, there is an added to such non-use values as conserving Urban dwellers also account for most payoff for policy makers who place WKH 5RDO %HQJDO WLJHU DQG $VLDWLF of the global demand for fresh water, a premium on biodiversity and lion. Under the system, a permit must wood, and other raw materials. ecosystem services: They are likely to be obtained to convert a forest to 6LQJDSRUH ZKLFK KDV GHYLVHG D enjoy stronger economic growth in the other uses and payments made into city biodiversity index to help guide decades ahead. Q3,&785( &5(,7 $)3 $% 3+272/(67(5 /((60$ 6,1*$325(

a publicly managed fund devoted to improving India’s forest cover, conserving wildlife, and creating rural jobs. ,Q 9LHW 1DP XQGHU D SLORW 3(6 SROLF FUHDWHG ZLWK DVVLVWDQFH IURP WKH $VLD Regional Biodiversity Conservation Program, two hydropower facilities GARDEN CITY A couple looks down from a walkway on a canopy of trees in Singapore, dubbed the “Garden City of Asia.” The city-state follows a biodiversity index in its development plans. www.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 23

,5=09654,5; Dirty Business Asia is on the receiving end of some of the world’s most toxic waste BY William BraniginB y the dozens each day, plastic, aluminum, computer chips, E-WASTE EXPOSÉ Activitists mount cargo ships pull into port OHDGWLQ VROGHU DQG VPDOO DPRXQWV RI an installation made from computer in Hong Kong, China, and precious metals such as gold. But in monitors on a truck during a protest in RIÁRDG IRRW FRQWDLQHUV the process, they expose themselves New Delhi in 2007. Watchdog groupsÀOOHG ZLWK GLVFDUGHG HOHFWURQLF JRRGV and the environment to a host of toxins have exposed the threat posed by thefrom elsewhere in the world, mostly including lead, mercury, cadmium, improper processing of these toxicfrom North America. The refuse is EHUOOLXP DQG EURPLQDWHG ÁDPH materials to health and the environment.typically taken to fenced scrapyards or retardants.warehouses for initial sorting north of The situation in Guiyu, documentedKowloon, then moved into the People’s by watchdog groups, such as the BaselRepublic of China (PRC) by truck or Action Network and Greenpeace, A FAST-GROWING PROBLEMboat. represents one aspect of the growing )RU VHYHUDO HDUV QRZ HZDVWH KDV The electronic waste, known as problem of hazardous waste in Asia. EHHQ WKH IDVWHVWJURZLQJ ZDVWHHZDVWH RU HVFUDS RIWHQ HQGV XS LQ It also exposes what the groups have problem in the world, according toGuiyu, a town about 22 miles west called the dirty little secret of the the United Nations Environmentof Shantou in rural Guangdong electronics recycling industry: the 3URJUDPPH 81(3

DQG LWV DIÀOLDWHG PICTURE CREDIT: AFPProvince. There, thousands of workers, FRPPRQ FRVWFXWWLQJ SUDFWLFH RI VLPSO Basel Convention on the Controlmany of them women and children, H[SRUWLQJ HZDVWH IURP FRXQWULHV of Transboundary Movements ofuse basic tools, open burning, and such as the United States, instead of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal.acid baths to recover copper, steel, processing it safely at home. (ZDVWH DFFRXQWV IRU DERXW RI24 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

municipal waste and is estimated A PROLIFERATION OF PLASTICS ANDto be piling up at 3 times the rate of TECHNOLOGYmunicipal waste worldwide. %HFDXVH RI YDULQJ GHÀQLWLRQV DQG “It is exponentially growing,” says UHSRUWLQJ PHFKDQLVPV LW LV GLIÀFXOWKatharina Kummer Peiry, head of to estimate how much of global orWKH 6ZLVVEDVHG %DVHO &RQYHQWLRQ regional waste is hazardous. But asecretariat. “At the time the Basel major concern is the soaring share&RQYHQWLRQ ZDV DGRSWHG LQ of municipal wastes represented bythis did not even exist as a waste plastics. Now massively manufacturedVWUHDP 1RZ HZDVWH LV WKH NH ZDVWH all over the world, plastics are used instream that the Basel Convention is more and more products, includinglooking at.” electronics, and can absorb and According to Jim Puckett, executive transfer persistent organic pollutants,GLUHFWRU RI WKH 6HDWWOHEDVHG %DVHO known as POPs—chemicals, oftenAction Network, a group working used in pesticides, that endure in theto address toxic waste issues, up to environment and accumulate in the RI WKH HZDVWH FROOHFWHG LQ WKH 86 food chain.for recycling actually ends up being Although plastic waste often endsexported. Much of it comes from XS LQ ODQGÀOOV LW DOVR QRZ DERXQGVentities such as government agencies in the world’s oceans, where largeand schools that sign recycling rotating surface currents called gyrescontracts with the lowest bidder, he KDYH IRUPHG ´HQWLUH ÁRDWLQJ LVODQGVsays. Shipping containers tracked by of marine debris,” according to Vitalhis group have made their way to Waste Graphics 3. /DUJH KLJKGHQVLWIndia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, TOXIC EXPORT Greenpeace activists in concentrations of more than 50,000and Viet Nam, Puckett says, but most Hong Kong, China lower a banner on a plastic particles per square kilometerare still going to Hong Kong, China, cargo ship allegedly carrying an illegal are found in the North and Southen route to the PRC. shipment of electronic waste from the 3DFLÀF DV ZHOO DV WKH 1RUWK DQG 6RXWK Like hazardous waste generally, United States in 2008. $WODQWLF

ZKLOH D YDVW PHGLXPGHQVLWWKH H[SORVLRQ RI HZDVWH KDV EHHQ VZDWK RI SOXV SLHFHV SHU VTXDUHdriven in part by population growth also owes much to the astonishing NLORPHWHU ÁRDWV LQ WKH ,QGLDQ 2FHDQand rising consumption. But it SUROLIHUDWLRQ RI KLJKWHFK GHYLFHV the report says. Within those gyres, it worldwide, rapid obsolescence, says, “marine fauna ingest plastic or manufacturing techniques that become entangled in it,” while most PDNH GLVDVVHPEO GLIÀFXOW DQG humans remain oblivious. widespread unawareness—even in In Asia as in other regions, mounting “The world developed countries—of the toxic concerns about hazardous waste have population is nature of materials hidden in personal been accompanied by a dramatic steadily increasing, computers, cell phones, monitors, and shift in the production and usage many other electronic products. of information and communication consumption levels “The world population is steadily technology (ICT). Since 2003, mobile are growing, and as a increasing, consumption levels are phone subscribers in the developing result the global waste growing, and as a result the global world have outnumbered those in waste heap is getting bigger and developed countries and now account heap is getting bigger bigger,” says a draft report, Vital Waste IRU QHDUO RI WKH ZRUOG WRWDO 7KH and bigger” Graphics 3, produced for the Basel volume of obsolete personal computers ·=P[HS >HZ[L .YHWOPJZ WYVKJLK &RQYHQWLRQ DQG 81(3 % PLG in developing countries is projected MVY [OL )HZLS *VU]LU[PVU HUK century, it says, a projected world to exceed the number in developed [OL <UP[LK 5H[PVUZ ,U]PYVUTLU[ population of 9 billion is expected to nations by about 2016. 7YVNYHTTL generate more than 13.1 billion tons The International Telecommunication RI ZDVWH D HDU DERXW PRUH WKDQ Union has estimated that the number in 2009. of mobile phones in use worldwidewww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 25

,5=09654,5; MONEY FROM TRASH A boy collects usable materials among the garbage washed up at Manila Bay. More than 15 million people, almost all of them in developing countries, make a living by scavenging for recyclables. The Government of India has drafted UXOHV WR PDQDJH HZDVWH EXW WKH GR not cover the informal sector, where RI WKH FRXQWU·V HZDVWH UHFFOLQJ is carried out, according to the 2010 report. In the Philippines, where mobile phone subscriptions have skyrocketed and electronics make up more than RI LPSRUWV GXPSVLWH VFDYHQJHUVincreased from 145 million in 1996 to ÀOOHG ZLWK HZDVWH DUULYH LQ +RQJ FRPPRQO VZDUP RYHU ODQGÀOOV WKDWPRUH WKDQ ELOOLRQ LQ D HDU ZKHQ Kong, China, each day, destined for FRQWDLQ HZDVWH PL[HG ZLWK RWKHU VROLGsales of mobile handsets reportedly a recycling industry that since the waste. But under a recycling loopholereached 1 billion. With most mobile PLGV KDV WUDQVIRUPHG *XLX in the Basel Convention, a trade inphones destined to be discarded within IURP D SRRU UXUDO ULFHJURZLQJ secondhand electronics has developed,1–3 years of purchase, it is no wonder community into a booming—but contributing to the growing heaps ofthat the ICT industry is projected to heavily polluted—processing center HZDVWH *,6:DWFK UHSRUWV ,Q JHQHUDWH PLOOLRQ WRQV RI HZDVWH E for discarded electronics. As a result, DORQH WRQV RI VHFRQGKDQG2012. the area’s groundwater has been electrical and electronic equipment contaminated, forcing authorities to were imported, mostly from Japan andA GLOBAL WASTE MARKET build a pipeline to bring in fresh water the Republic of Korea.2I WKH HZDVWH RQO DERXW LV from 30 kilometers away, Puckett says. 0RUHRYHU D DJUHHPHQW ZLWKreported to be recycled, with or without Levels of dioxins and heavy metals are Japan allowed the importation ofadequate safety procedures, according some of the highest in the world, and Japanese chemical, hospital, andto the 2010 annual report of Global tests have shown elevated lead levels in municipal wastes into the Philippines,Information Society Watch (GISWatch), children’s blood, he says. angering environmentalists anda network that promotes sustainable Conditions in India and Pakistan, prompting one Philippine newspaperICT. Yet, that is enough to fuel a ZKHUH HZDVWH SURFHVVLQJ KDV to complain that the country wasglobal waste market worth roughly mushroomed, may be even worse than “positioning itself as a global waste$300 billion a year. Worldwide, waste those in the PRC, the Basel Action dump.”picking or scavenging in an informal Network reports. It cites the openrecycling industry provides income to burning of circuit boards by child BASEL CONVENTION SEEKSmore than 15 million people, almost all laborers in New Delhi neighborhoods SOLUTIONSof them in developing countries. and unventilated operations in Karachi Like the PRC, India, Japan, the In the PRC, at least 10 million people using blowtorches and acid—all to Republic of Korea, and most Southeastwork in recycling, roughly 700,000 of recover chips and precious metals. Asian nations, the Philippines hasWKHP LQ WKH HZDVWH VHFWRU DFFRUGLQJ “Increasingly, India is becoming UDWLÀHG WKH %DVHO &RQYHQWLRQto UNEP. There, Guiyu has emerged D GXPSLQJ JURXQG IRU HZDVWHµ which was designed to reduce theas the “ground zero for the electronic according to a country report published movements of hazardous waste amongwaste trade,” says Puckett, who has by GISWatch. India generated about nations. It took effect in 1992 and nowpersonally investigated conditions in WRQV RI HZDVWH LQ DQ KDV SDUWLHV 7KH 86 KDV VLJQHG EXW PICTURE CREDIT: AFPthe town for the Basel Action Network. amount projected to grow to 1.6 million QRW UDWLÀHG LW Although it is illegal to import tons by 2012. In addition, about 500,000 A more ambitious measure, knownhazardous waste into the PRC, he says, WRQV D HDU RI HZDVWH DUH LPSRUWHG as the Ban Amendment, was adoptedroughly 50–100 shipping containers illegally, the report says. by the convention’s parties in 199526 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

with the aim of prohibiting all exports says. One example is the developmentof hazardous wastes from developed of a “benign chemical method”countries to developing nations for “We could really have for stripping circuit boards usingDQ UHDVRQ ,W KDV EHHQ UDWLÀHG E toxic-free equipment “nonaggressive chemicals,” whichcountries, but it has not yet entered would at least mitigate some of theinto force, and key countries such as now, and certainly in harmful health and environmentalJapan, the Republic of Korea, and the 5 years, if the will was LPSDFWV RI HZDVWH SURFHVVLQJ LQ WKHUS have refused to sign it or honor there” informal sector.its provisions. In the US, the world’s The Basel Action Network and otherELJJHVW HZDVWH H[SRUWHU WKH VFUDS ·1PT 7JRL[[ L_LJ[P]L KPYLJ[VY JURXSV DOVR SURPRWH ´WDNHEDFNµindustry has vigorously opposed such VM [OL :LH[[SLIHZLK )HZLS (J[PVU programs in which manufacturers are 5L[^VYRprovisions on grounds they restrict free required to accept their old productstrade. from consumers for proper recycling. But advocates of the amendment adopted a “paradigm shift in the way Such programs have gained tractionsee some hopeful signs. A conference that wastes are looked at.” Instead in many countries, including the PRC,of the Basel Convention parties in of focusing mainly on controlling where consumers are paid to turnColombia in October last year resolved “waste disposal and transboundary in equipment they no longer want,a longstanding deadlock by agreeing movements,” she says, the conference Puckett says. But the program appliesWKDW PRUH UDWLÀFDWLRQV DUH QHHGHG IRU DJUHHG WR HPEUDFH PRUH RI D ´OLIH only to products sold in the PRC.the Ban Amendment to take effect. cycle approach, so that prevention RPHVWLF HZDVWH ´LV D SUREOHP DQG Perhaps more importantly, according and minimization of waste should [the People’s Republic of] China isto Kummer Peiry, the Basel Convention be promoted by the parties and all working on it,” Puckett says. “Butexecutive secretary, the parties stakeholders.” they’re turning a blind eye to the This means more emphasis on “green smuggling in Hong Kong, China and production,” aimed at minimizing the imports into Guiyu, unfortunately.”FASTER THAN TWEETING A gambler in toxic materials in the manufacture of Environmentalists are also pushingPhnom Penh talks on 18 mobile phones electronics, for example, and at “using cleaner production as a way to limitat the same time as he comments on a recycling as an acceptable way to hazardous waste at the source andboxing match. Environmentalists fear generate green jobs and opportunities.” FXUWDLO WKH WHFKQRWUDVKLQJ RI WKHthat the proliferation of mobile phones At the Basel Action Network and planet. Manufacturers “are doing muchin Asia will compound the problem of other advocacy groups, innovative more work on that now,” although theye-waste in the region. solutions are in the works, Puckett are “not aggressive enough,” Puckett says. “They’re really timid to market green products.” He cites the example of a major mobile phone maker that has produced D ´WR[LFIUHH SKRQHµ EXW KDV UHVLVWHG publicizing it. The company does not want to highlight the fact that the rest of its products contain toxic materials, of which the public is largely unaware, Puckett says. He adds that consultants of manufacturers have admitted to him that they have the ability to eliminate hazardous materials from computers DQG RWKHU KLJKWHFK SURGXFWV E LI not before. “That’s the frustrating thing. We FRXOG UHDOO KDYH WR[LFIUHH HTXLSPHQW now, and certainly in 5 years, if the will was there,” Puckett says. “So much of this stuff is avoidable.” Qwww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 27

,5=09654,5; Dry Cough Booming economies and an expanding car-loving middle class are fouling Asia’s skies… and they might be the best way to clear them BY Floyd Whaley IPIERCING THE HAZE A policeman n the late 1990s, the Indian city motorized tricycles—were required toGLUHFWV WUDIÀF RQ D IRJJ PRUQLQJ LQ 1HZ of Delhi was nearly intolerable. convert to cleaner-running compressedHOKL %HORZ DQ DXWRULFNVKDZ UHIXHOV DW A thick haze blanketed the natural gas (CNG).D FRPSUHVVHG QDWXUDO JDV &1*

VWDWLRQ metropolis on most days, and The results were impressive. Thein the Indian capital. residents routinely had to breathe one country’s Central Pollution Control of the deadliest types of air pollution, Board reported a 24% decrease in the toxic particles blasted from the back deadly particulate matter in Delhi’s of vehicles called particulate matter. air from 1996 to 2002. This saved Driven by public outrage, and an estimated 3,629 lives per year, activist lawsuits, the country’s court according to a 2005 World Bank report. system compelled the city and national Though Delhi’s booming population governments to act. Thousands of and explosion of vehicle ownership PICTURE CREDIT: AFP polluting textile and chemical plants has reversed many of the gains were ordered to clean up or close, made by the CNG conversion of the DQG PRVW VLJQLÀFDQWO DOO SXEOLF late 1990s, the experience of the city transport—including buses, taxis, and remains an example often cited by28 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

environmentalists and government This rapid growth has leftRIÀFLDOV DOLNH RI KRZ ELJ FLWLHV· VNLHV governments in the region strugglingcan be cleaned up. “The public health to keep their skies clean. Few Asian Throughout Asia, major cities are countries have systematic air qualityfacing a similar situation. Thriving and social policy management programs that allowurban centers in some of the fastest implications of the governments to set standards,growing economies in the world are relations among implement broad-based programs, andproducing more exhaust-belching monitor results, states the 2010 reportvehicles, more private air conditioners, health, air pollution, Outdoor Air Pollution and Health in themore factory smokestacks, and levels and poverty are likely Developing Countries of Asia, by theof urban pollution unseen since the to be important, Health Effects Institute in the UnitedÀUVW GHFDGHV RI WKH V LQ (XURSH DQG States.North America. especially in areas Though there are a few bright “In Asia, the high rate of such as Asia, where spots in terms of controlling vehicleurbanization and economic growth air pollution emissions, most parts of Asia still havehas led to a rapid increase in vehicles old, high-polluting vehicles on theirand energy consumption,” says concentrations are roads. Many of these vehicles run onSophie Punte, executive director of the high and many live in SRRU TXDOLW ´GLUWµ IXHO 5HWURÀWWLQJClean Air Initiative for Asian Cities, poverty” modern pollution control systems,established by the Asian Development such as catalytic converters on vehiclesBank and other partners. “This has ·/LHS[O ,MMLJ[Z 0UZ[P[[L YLWVY[ must be done in coordination withhappened quickly. The economic 6[KVVY (PY 7VSS[PVU HUK /LHS[O PU the phasing out of low-grade gasoline [OL +L]LSVWPUN *VU[YPLZ VM (ZPHdevelopment in Asia that has taken and diesel. This is a huge task for anyplace in the last 2 decades took city or rural area. Rapidly expandinghundreds of years in the West.” numbers of private vehicles throughout -6<9:;962, :(=05.:I n the Philippines, many people travel short distances around the city on motorized tricycles. They are cheap, popular, and poweredby two-stroke engines, one of the mostpolluting types of combustion on theroad. The deadly white smoke a singletwo-stroke tricycle emits can pollutemore than an entire bus. The moremodern four-stroke engines run cleanerbut they are expensive, which makesthe drivers less inclined to upgrade.A project in the Manila-area city ofMandaluyong addressed this issueXVLQJ PLFURÀQDQFH 7ULFFOH GULYHUVwere lent enough money to buy a four-stroke bike if they agreed to give uptheir two-stroke engine. This created a40% saving in fuel, part of which could scale up the effort to other cities in the :,1:,1 ($/ $ FLW LQ 0DQLOD LV RIIHULQJbe used to pay back the loan. Several country. The drivers recognized that WULFFOH RZQHUV HDV ÀQDQFLQJ WR FRQYHUWdrivers in the pilot project have already cleaner engines were also healthier for WKHLU WZRVWURNH HQJLQH WR D IRXUVWURNHpaid back their loan in full and now themselves and their community, say HQJLQH ZKLFK FRQVXPHV OHVV IXHOproject administrators are looking to project organizers. Qwww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 29

,5=09654,5;the region compound the problem found that two-thirds of the estimatedfurther. 800,000 deaths and 4.6 million lost Complicating the situation is the fact “If someone is hit years of healthy life worldwide causedthat in many countries in Asia, there is by exposure to urban air pollutiona clash of interest in the government by a car, they know occurred in the developing countriesagency responsible for addressing air why they died, but if of Asia.pollution, says Punte. someone has a stroke Despite the disturbing overall “There is a perverse incentive to estimates, data on health effects of airavoid air quality monitoring,” she or a heart attack, pollution in Asia are seldom directlysays. “The agency mandated with how do you know if useable by policy makers, says Punte.addressing air quality problems— it was caused by air This gap between research andusually the environment ministry policymaking limits the abilities ofin a country—is also the monitoring pollution?” politicians to make the hard decisionsagency. If they monitor properly, and needed to address air pollution.ÀQG KLJK OHYHOV WKH DUH EXUGHQHG ·:VWOPL 7U[L L_LJ[P]L KPYLJ[VY “If someone is hit by a car, you VM [OL *SLHU (PY 0UP[PH[P]L MVY (ZPHUwith extra work and responsibility in know why they died, but if someone *P[PLZVROYLQJ WKH SUREOHP WKH LGHQWLÀHG has a stroke or a heart attack, howSo the incentive is to provide weak do you know if it was caused by airmonitoring. What is their incentive situation stand to improve as well, pollution?” asks Punte. “The damageWR ÀQG SUREOHPV WKDW WKH PXVW WKHQ experts note. Reducing local air is shared and less visible. If people oncorrect?” pollution reduces carbon emission and average die 1 year earlier, how do you Against this backdrop, the region thus mitigates climate change. know if that is due to poor air quality?”must also address a variety of other A study linking declining health andsources of air pollution, such as open QUANTIFYING THE HEALTH IMPACT air pollution in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietburning of trash and other materials, The region’s rapid growth without Nam has provided some of the bestemissions from combustion of low- adequate air quality management evidence yet that dirty air puts peoplequality indoor fuels, and large numbers systems in place has made Asian cities into the hospital, and sometimes intoof unregulated small businesses and some of the least healthy places in the the grave.industries. world to live. In 2000, the last time a The study, conducted between 2003 PICTURE CREDIT: AFP As these issues are addressed, the global study was done on the matter, and 2005, examined admissions ofEHQHÀWV WR WKH JOREDO FOLPDWH FKDQJH the World Health Organization (WHO) children under the age of 5 at the two main pediatric hospitals in the city. It looked at all children of this age admitted for acute respiratory illness. “Nearly all children admitted for respiratory illnesses in (Ho Chi Minh City) are hospitalized in one of these two pediatric hospitals,” a summary of the report notes. “Thus, we captured nearly all children’s admissions for acute respiratory illness.” The preliminary results of the study were startling. When looked at on a chart, the line illustrating the number of pediatric hospital admissions for AT HIGH RISK Schoolchildren cross a EXV VWUHHW LQ 3DNLVWDQ 7KH :RUOG +HDOWK 2UJDQL]DWLRQ VDV VRPH RI WKH KDUGHVW KLW E SRRU DLU TXDOLW DUH SHRSOH OLYLQJ QHDU PDMRU URDGZDV30 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

respiratory problems and the lineshowing the day’s increase in airpollution run on very similar paths.There was variation between rainyand dry seasons, but the conclusionsindicated by the data were compelling. “Increased concentrations of airpollutants… are associated withincreased hospital admissions foracute lower respiratory infection inyoung children of Ho Chin Minh City,particularly in the dry season,” statesWKH UHSRUW ZKLFK ZDV ÀQDQFHG E WKHAsian Development Bank and HealthEffects Institute. Though the Viet Nam study didnot examine the poverty levels of thechildren admitted to the hospital, itis likely that most of them were poor.According to a broader study on the who reside or work in close proximity CONVERTED $ JDUDJH ZRUNHU LQVWDOOV Dimpact on health of air pollution, there to major roadways.” QDWXUDO JDV WDQN WR D YHKLFOH LQ %DQJNRNis increasing evidence that povertycompounds the likelihood of suffering MIDDLE-CLASS DEMANDS government also mandated inspectionfrom medical conditions related to poor In the last 3 decades, Thailand’s capital and maintenance programs, as partair quality. city of Bangkok underwent a transition of vehicle registration, and police “Economically disadvantaged common in Asia. As the economy conducted roadside checks on vehiclescommunities are exposed to higher expanded, vehicle ownership grew emitting smoke.concentrations of air pollution,” states rapidly. The number of motor vehicles As these measures werethe recent Health Effects Institute registered in Bangkok soared to more implemented, roadside monitorsreport. “Because of poorer nutrition, than 5.6 million in 2007 from 600,000 GLUHFWO UHÁHFWHG FRUUHVSRQGLQJless access to medical care, and other in 1980. As expected, this was followed decreases in air pollution.factors, people in these communities E D VLJQLÀFDQW LQFUHDVH LQ JDVROLQH DQG In Bangkok, another dynamicexperience more health impact per unit diesel fuel consumption. was also at play. The expandingof pollution exposure.” In cities throughout prosperous East economy did not only increase vehicle The comprehensive 284-page report Asia, the situation has repeated itself. ownership and fuel consumption, itnotes that low levels of education, low Incomes, vehicle ownership, and fuel also increased the size of the middlefamily income, and residence in a poor XVDJH LQFUHDVH 6PRJÀOOHG VNLHV VRRQ class, which demanded a cleanerneighborhood are all risk factors for follow. environment. This phenomenon is adeveloping health problems associated But in Bangkok, that was not the powerful driver of change throughoutwith poor air quality. case. While vehicle ownership and Asia and the world, says Punte. “The public health and social policy fuel usage increased, the government “Once you reach a certain level ofimplications of the relations among implemented emission control ZHDOWK RX ÀQG JUHDWHU FRQFHUQ IRUhealth, air pollution, and poverty are strategies and effective air pollution WKH HQYLURQPHQW DQG ZH·UH ÀQGLQJlikely to be important, especially in monitoring systems that improved the that in Asia now,” she says. “As Asianareas such as Asia, where air pollution city’s air quality over time. economies grow, the pressure increasesconcentrations are high and many live The city obtained this result by for governments to address air qualityin poverty,” the report states. enforcing vehicle emissions standards, issues. A growing middle class will Some of the hardest hit by poor air particularly the installation of catalytic demand better public spaces, improvedquality, according to the WHO, are converters as well as incentives for ‘walkability’ in urban areas and a better“people living in poverty worldwide drivers to phase out two-stroke quality of life.who use dirty biomass fuels for indoor engines, which are some of the highest “Clean air is an important part ofcooking and heating, as well as those polluting vehicles on the road. The that.” Qwww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 31

,5=09654,5; Murky Water Water pollution threatens millions in Asia but innovative solutions are being found BY Jade Lee-Duffy and Karen EmmonsA fter a heavy rainstorm in June, farmers around the townships of Qujing City in Yunnan Province in thesouthwest People’s Republic of China’s(PRC), woke to a disturbing scene.Their goats, sheep, horses, and cattlelay dead on hillsides. The livestock hadconsumed water tainted by toxic waste. An investigation found that a localcompany had hired truck drivers todispose of the waste at a treatmentplant in the bordering GuizhouProvince. To save on transport costs,the drivers instead unloaded the heavy-metal-laden slurry near a reservoir inQujing’s rural areas. The rain washedthe toxic sludge into a tributary ofthe Pearl River, one of the country’sextensive river systems. No human deaths or injuries werereported, but the waste turned thewater in a nearby reservoir yellow andvillagers up and downstream becameafraid of all water. According to one of the world’sforemost water experts, a man whoadvises prime ministers and theUnited Nations, people in developingcountries have many reasons to feartheir water—beyond the recklessdisregard of truck drivers. Asit Biswas believes the planet ischoking on water pollution but thatwater quality “has disappeared fromthe radar as a critical environmentalissue,” according to an editorial hecowrote that appeared in the Bangkok this resource but because of its quality FISH KILL Workers remove over 50,000Post in June 2011. He also believes which is deteriorating continuously in NLORJUDPV RI GHDG ÀVK IURP WKH RQJKXwater experts, the media, and other nearly all developing countries,” he ODNH LQ :XKDQ LQ 7KH 3HRSOHҋVLQÁXHQWLDO VHFWRUV XQQHFHVVDULO IRFXV wrote with his wife, Cecilia Tortajada, 5HSXEOLF RI &KLQD DGPLWWHG LQ WKDW PICTURE CREDIT: AFPon a coming water crisis from the angle in the May 2011 issue of Asian Water. ZDWHU SROOXWLRQ LQ ZDV WZLFH DV EDGof physical scarcity. Both water experts founded the Third “If there is a water crisis in the future, World Centre for Water Managementit will not be due to physical lack of in Mexico and are visiting professors32 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public *$5%$*( 803 $ ER WKURZV JDUEDJHPolicy in Singapore, among a variety of LQWR WKH DOUHDG SROOXWHG <DPXQD ULYHUprominent positions. In 2006, Biswas, LQ 1HZ HOKL 7KH ULYHU KDV EHFRPH Dwho was born in India, was awarded OLTXLG JDUEDJH GXPS ZLWK ELOOLRQ OLWHUVthe Stockholm Water Prize. RI ZDVWH DQG UDZ VHZDJH RYHU KDOI RI Biswas and his wife are not the only WKH FLWҋV GDLO ZDVWH

SXPSHG LQWR WKHwater experts speaking out about NLORPHWHU ULYHU HYHU GD FKRNLQJquality issues. A recent report from the PRVW RI LWV DTXDWLF OLIHAsian Development Bank, Greening*URZWK LQ $VLD DQG WKH 3DFLÀF notesthat the precarious water situation pollution to agricultural development,will further be complicated by climate population growth, urbanization andchange. industrialization, and market and “Many large Asian river basins are policy failures.particularly vulnerable to regional According to the UN, pollutantswarming, given the critical role of “The statistics on water pollution include pathogens, organic matter,JODFLHUV DQG VQRZÀHOGV WKDW VHUYH paint a grim picture—approximately nutrients, heavy metals (including 40% of [the PRC’s] waterways are arsenic) and toxic chemicals, sediments Grade IV to V+, meaning that the water and suspended solids, silts, and salts. is unsuitable for drinking, industry, “If there is a water or agriculture,” wrote Jennifer Turner, POLLUTERS crisis in the future, director of the China Environment Industry is certainly a major polluter, it will not be due to Forum at the Woodrow Wilson due to both accidents and the direct International Center for Scholars, release of toxic waste into water physical lack of this Washington D.C., in Asia Society’s 2006 resources. In the PRC in 2005, an resource but because Water Security Report. oil company was blamed for an of its quality which One of the report’s writers, Upmanu 80-kilometer spill of toxic benzene in Lall, director of the Columbia Water the Songhua River that supplies water is deteriorating Center at Columbia University in to Harbin, a city of 4 million people. continuously in New York City, says he suspects the Elsewhere in the PRC, according to nearly all developing situation is worse in India, much better the Water Security Report, as of 2006 in the Republic of Korea and Japan some 2,800 chemical factories are countries” and somewhere in between among located around Lake Tai near the Southeast Asian countries. PRC’s southeastern coast, the country’s ·(ZP[ )PZ^HZ MVUKLY VM [OL The Challenges to International third-largest freshwater body now ;OPYK >VYSK *LU[YL MVY >H[LY Waters—Regional Assessments in a “devastated by agricultural and 4HUHNLTLU[ PU 4L_PJV Global Perspective report declares that industrial pollution as a consequence water pollution along with freshwater of [the PRC’s] economic boom and VKRUWDJH DUH WZR RI ÀYH ´VHULRXV poor management of waste.” Theas ‘water towers,’ in supporting dry worldwide problems that are expected report noted that 2 million people hadVHDVRQ DQG GURXJKW HDU ÁRZV XSRQ to increase in severity by 2020.” The lost access to their primary freshwaterwhich hundreds of millions of Asians assessments used eight transboundary VRXUFH DQG ÀVK LHOGV ULFH SURGXFWLRQdepend,” the report says. “Climate indicators when looking at pollutants: and tourism had declined.change is also warming water in large suspended solids, eutrophication While industrial accidents andlakes in the region. In past decades, (excessive nutrients in aquatic systems reckless truck drivers get headlines,temperatures have increased by 0.45°C caused largely by sewage and fertilizer water experts point to municipalon average, which, while seemingly runoff), microbial pollution, solid wastewater and agricultural runoff asmodest, can have dramatic effects wastes, chemical pollution, oil spills, the main sources of pollution of bothon water quality and ecosystems in radionuclides, and thermal pollution. surface and groundwater supplies.lakes. Further warming could result in The report, produced by the United In 2010, the PRC governmentrapid biodiversity loss in freshwater Nations Environment Programme, reported that water pollution in 2007ecosystems.” also attributes the root causes of was more than twice as damaging aswww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 33

,5=09654,5;RIÀFLDO ÀJXUHV RULJLQDOO LQGLFDWHG RIÀFLDO ,QGLDQ JRYHUQPHQW OLPLW About a billion people still lack safeInstead of 13.8 million metric tons In the Philippines, densely populated drinking water and the Millenniumof polluted discharges into the areas have created highly polluted Development Goal targets halvingcountry’s water systems, a total of bodies of water. In the four urban that number by 2015. But the Water PLOOLRQ PHWULF WRQV ÁRZHG LQWR areas of Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Security Report UDLVHV D ÁDJ FRQWHQGLQJthe water bodies that year. The change Southern Tagalog, and Central Visayas, there has been “a focus on ensuringin numbers was due to the recent approximately 58% of sampled adequate supplies of water withoutinclusion of agricultural waste into the groundwater was contaminated appropriate consideration for waterUHSRUW DJULFXOWXUDO HIÁXHQWV ODFHG ZLWK with coliform bacteria and required supply safety and security, waterIHUWLOL]HUV DQG SHVWLFLGHV DQG ÁXLGV treatment. treatment and disposal, and demandOHDNLQJ IURP ODQGÀOOV Treatment, however, is poor across management.” The result, the report In India, large stretches of rivers are the region as it is around the world. says, “is dependence on increasinglydying. New Delhi’s Yamuna River has Research by the Third World Centre for contaminated water sources.”become a liquid garbage dump with 3 Water Management in Latin America According to the United Nationsbillion liters of waste and raw sewage found that 10% of wastewater point Children’s Fund (UNICEF), only 53%(over half of the city’s daily waste) sources (such as sewage and industrial of Indonesia’s population in 2004pumped into the 1,300-kilometer river HIÁXHQW RXWIDOOV

KDG SURSHU WUHDWPHQW obtained water from sources that wereevery day, choking most of its aquatic facilities, and Biswas has estimated more than 10 meters from a wastelife. To the east, the Ganges River is the situation was similar in Asia’s disposal site. In Jakarta alone, fecalone of the 10 most polluted rivers in developing countries. coliform was found in 84% of shallowthe world. At the northeastern city of In terms of controlling what are well samples.Varanasi, the Ganges’ fecal coliform known as non-point sources of Climate change is exacerbatinglevels are more than 100 times the pollution (diffused sources such as many of these situations. Particularly runoff), Biswas writes that “the record in developing countries, where/2:&267 62/87,216 $ IDUPHU SODQWV of developed countries is poor, and that governments have limited human,VDSOLQJV DW SDGG ÀHOGV RQ WKH RXWVNLUWV of developing countries… abysmal.” LQVWLWXWLRQDO DQG ÀQDQFLDO UHVRXUFHVRI +GHUDEDG ,QGLD 7R SUHYHQW WKH The source of this type of pollution the negative impact of torrential rains,SROOXWLRQ RI ZDWHU E DJULFXOWXUDO UXQRII source is primarily agricultural ULVLQJ VHD OHYHOV FFORQHV DQG ÁDVKWKH &ROXPELD :DWHU &HQWHU LQ 1HZ <RUN activities, such as the use of pesticides ÁRRGV DGGV DGGLWLRQDO FKDOOHQJHV WRLV WHVWLQJ WKH XVH RI ORZFRVW WRROV WKDW and chemical fertilizers (although safe drinking water and improvedKHOSV IDUPHUV PLQLPL]H WKH DSSOLFDWLRQ RI human waste due to open defecation is sanitation for both groundwater andIHUWLOL]HUV DQG SHVWLFLGH a serious problem also). surface water supply. IMPACTS When he thinks of water pollution, Lall says he thinks of cancer impacts and the loss of biodiversity: the loss of aquatic ecosystems and food VRXUFHV ÀVK LQ SDUWLFXODU

GLVHDVH (high incidence of cancer, blue baby syndrome, blindness, and maternal and infant mortality) and economics (treatment costs for drinking water are inordinately high for the polluted water). A World Bank study found that PRC farmers were almost four times more likely to die of liver cancer and PICTURE CREDIT: AFP twice as likely to die of stomach cancer compared with the global average. Lall says “cancer villages” are also evident in India’s Punjab state.34 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

and nitrate in the soil water, so that the timing and depth of irrigation, and the need for application of fertilizer and pesticide can be determined by the IDUPHU LQ WKH ÀHOG DQG KHQFH UHGXFH the amount used, save money, and also reduce pollution. As the climate changes, this approach would provide an adaptation strategy by tuning to the changing conditions. “In our experiments with 6,000 or so farmers, one can easily save 30% of water this way and recruiting and&219(57,1* :$67( ,172 (1(5*< professor of hydraulics and water training farmers does not require a$ PDQ FRRNV KLV PHDO RQ D ELRJDV resources engineering, Veer Bhadra transformation,” Lall says. His researchSRZHUHG VWRYH LQ <XQQDQ WKH 3HRSOHҋV Mishra, won approval and support group is working in Brazil, the PRC,5HSXEOLF RI &KLQD $ FRPSDQ KDV VHW from the government for a gravity- India, Ethiopia, Mali, and the UnitedXS WKH SURYLQFHҋV ÀUVW ODUJHVFDOH ELRJDV operated pilot sewage-treatment States, where agricultural pollutionGLJHVWHU ZKLFK WUHDWV XS WR WRQV RI program that aims to remove waste is also a huge problem. In Asia, heSLJ ZDVWH D GD and disease from the Ganges River. adds, “the problem is exacerbated by Mishra’s cheap, sustainable system the monsoon—high-intensity rainfall uses the gradient, instead of electric that is episodic leads to a high rate of :KLOH %LVZDV DQG KLV ZLIH ÀQG WKDW pumps, to divert sewage into four wash-off of fertilizer and pesticides andanecdotal evidence also indicates that big pools outside the city of Varanasi, a reapplication, thus creating a cycle ofthe health and environmental costs of where harmful pollutants are broken pollution that is hard to manage.”water-quality deterioration are already down by algae, bacteria, and sunlight. Environmental activism, thoughin the billions of dollars each year, Most treatment plants along the Ganges hardly innovative, is popping up inRWKHU H[SHUWV ÀQG WKH KXPDQ FRVW WR River only remove solid waste and not unexpected places. Discover magazinebe deadly. Diarrhea contracted from microorganisms. reported that more than 3,500sewage-contaminated water is one of The Huijia Peike Pig Breeding environmental organizations nowthe biggest killers in the region. The Company set up Yunnan Province’s have legal status in the PRC. “ThroughWorld Bank estimates that diarrhea ÀUVW ODUJHVFDOH ELRJDV GLJHVWHU 7KH a program called the Green Choicekills about 110,000 Bangladeshi children company’s large anaerobic digester Alliance, environmental groups publishyounger than 5 years every year. Dirty treats up to 150 tons of pig waste a lists of companies in violation ofwater is one of the leading causes of day, generating an average of 250 cubic environmental regulations and offerdeath for children in India, according to square meters of biogas. The energy is to conduct a third-party audit if athe World Health Organization. used to power the on-site facilities, and company chooses to clean up its act,” the surplus is diverted, at no cost, to says the magazine in March 2011.POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS 42 households nearby, where they will Biswas recently applauded a newAlthough Biswas wrote in the Asian save about $92 annually in fuel costs. resource for innovative solutions.Water commentary that “there are no This eco-friendly process removes The Asian Institute of Technology insigns that governments and people about 90% of livestock pollutants that Thailand is setting up the Asian Waterare aware of the seriousness of this would otherwise end up on nearby Research and Education Center withproblem and the dangers they pose farmland and in waterways. experts from different disciplinesto human health and ecosystems,” Lall and his group of researchers ORRNLQJ WR ÀQG $VLDVSHFLÀF VROXWLRQVthere are many reports of innovations at the Columbia Water Center are to Asia’s water problems, current andin pockets of Asia working to better working on strategies that confront future.manage the problem. the pollution of water by agricultural “If the proper management of water In India, most sewage treatment runoff. One solution involves the use quality continues to be neglected,”plants suspend operations for months of very cheap and simple sensors to Biswas concludes in his Bangkok Postat a time due to power cuts and erratic detect soil moisture and the presence editorial, “there is no question that theÁRRGZDWHUV $ +LQGX SULHVW DQG of the wetting front during irrigation, world is likely to face a water crisis.” Qwww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 35

,5=09654,5; Cambodia Goes GreenCambodia has aggressively embraced the concept of green growth but serious challenges lie ahead BY Karen EmmonsL ey Leup has been a rice FDXOLÁRZHU WKDW VKH JURZV RQ KHU IDUP TEAM EFFORT A dragon boat team farmer all of her life. The DUH IDU PRUH SURÀWDEOH WKDQ ULFH DQG paddles in unison along the Tonle 56-year-old resident of she makes a much more comfortable Sap river during the Water Festival northern Cambodia tried living. in Phnom Penh. Cambodia formed PICTURE CREDIT: AFP (DRAGON BOAT), CONOR WALL (LEY LEUP)to grow vegetables, which generate When asked if she is an organic an interministerial working group toJUHDWHU SURÀW EXW WKH KLJK FRVW RI farmer, she says: “I don’t know, but develop a strategy for the greening of itsfertilizers and pesticides kept her the traders pay more if I don’t use economy.income so low that she gave up. chemicals on my vegetables so I don’t In the last few years, things use them.”have changed. She has undergone Ley Leup is one small examplegovernment training that has taught of a broader movement underway growth—the balancing of economicher how to improve her seed selection, in Cambodia to bring green and expansion and environmentaluse waste from around her farm as sustainable practices without preservation.organic fertilizer, and deter pests VDFULÀFLQJ HFRQRPLF JURZWK By some accounts, Cambodia’swithout chemical pesticides. Though a small country, Cambodia efforts to green its economy began in aToday, the cabbage, morning is working to establish itself as a leader ZRUNVKRS IRU JRYHUQPHQW RIÀFLDOV LQglory, string beans, asparagus, and in the emerging practices of green 2007. At that meeting, Raekwon Chung,36 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

an environmental pioneer, talked $VVHVVPHQW DQG $GDSWDWLRQ 2IÀFHabout the concept of green growth. He within the Ministry of Environment,remembered that Mok Mareth, senior everything was pointing to the needminister and minister for environment, “to develop in a sustainable way” andin particular was keenly interested. improve the country’s resilience.Chung, the director of the Environmentand Development Division of the LOW-CARBON AND GREEN-GROWTHUnited Nations Economic and Social MODEL&RPPLVVLRQ IRU $VLD DQG WKH 3DFLÀF The ESCAP approach to low-carbon(ESCAP), encouraged the Cambodians green growth and its technicalto consider taking the concept further. guidance were an offer that Hak Mao Chung, a Korean, told the says the government would “neverCambodians that the only way they regret.” By following the ideas thatcould go forward was to bring in Chung and others encouraged, theVHQLRU RIÀFLDOV IURP PDQ PLQLVWULHV country could sustain its natural capitalmost especially those with the clout and grow the economy.WR VLQN RU ÁRDW LGHDV VXFK DV ÀQDQFH “The ESCAP green growth conceptplanning, and industry. promotes changes to the economic Chung was telling everyone at that system to close the gap betweentime—as he still does, passionately— HFRQRPLF HIÀFLHQF DQG HFRORJLFDOthat the current growth pattern of HIÀFLHQF VKLIWLQJ IURP WKH HQHUJthe region is energy-, resource-, and resource-, carbon-intensive growthcarbon-intensive, and that the region SDWWHUQ WRZDUG DQ HIÀFLHQW JURZWK SMART FARMING Ley Leup, a 56-year- pattern—a critical strategy for coping ROG ULFH IDUPHU LV PDNLQJ PRUH SURÀW with the looming multiple crises,” from raising pesticide-free vegetables. says Chung. “These changes include “We want to show She is one small example of a broader the change of the invisible structure the world this is movement underway in Cambodia to of the economy, such as market price, bring green and sustainable practices regulation, social values, lifestyle possible—to create ZLWKRXW VDFULÀFLQJ HFRQRPLF JURZWK and technology, and the changes of a new way of growth the visible infrastructure, such as the that will allow director-general of Cambodia’s design of city, building, transport, Ministry of Environment, having lived energy, water, and waste systems.” Cambodia to enhance through a “black regime” in the 1970s Although less of an easy sell outside economic growth when infrastructure was decimated Cambodia’s environment ministry, while also preserving and human resources destroyed, he partly because so few people had and other Cambodians were afraid of ever heard of green growth let alone and promoting its the prospects of similar destruction of understand why it should involve environment and rich their natural resources. them, Mok Mareth and Koch Savath ecosystems” The Cambodians knew their forest eventually brought every government cover was dwindling fast and they ministry into an interministerial green ·1PLU 3LL H WYVNYHT VMMPJLY ^P[O had huge problems with waste growth working group. [OL .SVIHS .YLLU .YV^[O 0UZ[P[[L management. They also knew that as In time the working group became a least-developed agrarian country, impassioned about green growth they were highly vulnerable to climate and what Cambodia could achieve,will be hardest hit by the looming change impacts. explains Aneta Nikolova, an ESCAPenergy, resource and climate crises. As green growth was being HQYLURQPHQWDO DIIDLUV RIÀFHU ZKR LVCaring about the environment, explains introduced, Cambodia also was part of a capacity-building team that&KXQJ PHDQV XVLQJ LW HIÀFLHQWO FRQVWUXFWLQJ LWV ÀUVW QDWLRQDO SURJUDP Chung created to help policy makers inwhich in turn leads to economic of action on adaptation to climate the region understand how to developHIÀFLHQF DQG FRQWLQXHG JURZWK change. Says Hak Mao, chief of green growth policies and apply the According to Koch Savath, deputy the Climate Change Vulnerability concept to their context.www.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 37

,5=09654,5;EMPOWERING CONSUMERS A familyHDWV GLQQHU RQ WKH ÁRRU LQ IURQW RI Dportable lamp during a power outage inPhnom Penh. A pilot project in Cambodiaaims to give villagers a low-cost,clean energy option by training themto manage solar-powered rechargingstations for rechargeable lamps. After training Cambodian trainers,the capacity-building team and theworking group over the span of 2years, half a dozen seminars, andfunding from the Government of theRepublic of Korea put together an Korean International Cooperation is certainly heavy on zeal. It containsexhaustive strategy, right down to Agency, a low-fee rental scheme 37 priorities that address what it callspossible jobs, for the short-, medium-, for rechargeable lamps and solar- the seven access areas. The emphasisand long-term greening of Cambodia’s powered recharging stations were is on green economic growth projectseconomy. made available to residents in two DQG SURJUDPV LQFOXGLQJ HFRHIÀFLHQW “We made them dream and see the ÁRDWLQJ YLOODJHV LQ %DWWDPERQJ DQG UHVRXUFHHIÀFLHQW LQQRYDWLRQV WKDWhorizon,” says Nikolova. Province. The villagers were trained can create opportunities and new green to maintain the scheme, giving them jobs.ILLUMINATING WHAT IS POSSIBLE energy independence. The plan is to The document states “while anThey also showed them how to use the lanterns as a model for future instant paradigm shift toward greenilluminate those dreams (both pro-poor green business projects both growth is not to be expected,” it isÀJXUDWLYHO DQG OLWHUDOO

E LQFOXGLQJ in provincial Cambodia and in other looking for “an economic growtha demonstration project to illustrate developing countries. model that is more conducive forthe pro-poor green business model and Cambodia has also tried to rev up human development, resilience, andhow to put it into practice. The project interest in innovative technologies, environmental sustainability than theintroduced an innovative, clean, safe, such as producing biogas energy current business-as-usual approach.”affordable, and of course environment- at a small scale. A garments factoryIULHQGO ZD WR OLJKW XS ÁRDWLQJ currently operates from energy IMPLEMENTING THE ROAD MAPvillages. SURGXFHG IURP ULFH KXVN JDVLÀFDWLRQ Despite the impressive beginning, Cambodia is heavily dependent In early 2010, a senior representative there is yet no formal policy in place.upon energy imports and lacks a from every ministry met at a Additionally, awareness of greennationwide electricity transmission roundtable event to endorse what has growth or even of the road mapsystem. Those who can access the become a historic milestone in regional remains extremely limited within thegrid pay dearly for the unsteady efforts toward implementing green private sector and the general public.supply. Much of the country otherwise growth. There are some promisingis dependent on expensive, dirty, A few months later, the Global Green projects underway, implementedunreliable, or potentially dangerous Growth Institute (GGGI) was set up with international donor support,sources for energy, heat, and light, in Seoul to help developing country including efforts to make rice farmersincluding portable generators, kerosene governments create green growth more resilient to climate change andlanterns, and lead-acid batteries. strategies. Although somewhat ahead encourage small farmers to adoptThrough a pilot partnership with of the game but still needing immense sustainable practices and diversifySunlabob Renewable Energy, the WHFKQLFDO DQG ÀQDQFLDO DVVLVWDQFH WKH agriculture. PICTURE CREDIT: AFPCambodian Renewable Development Cambodians asked GGGI for help to It will likely take several years toTeam, the National Green Growth apply the road map. implement such a policy in CambodiaSecretariat of the Ministry of Reading more like an environment- on a broad scale, says Koch Savath.Environment of Cambodia, and the friendly shopping list, the road map He notes that it takes time to convince38 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

people of the importance of sustainable a green growth policy, and a regulatory Can Cambodia lead the way forpractices and to develop the political framework. The priority sectors that developing countries? Draftingwill to make green growth the policy. ZLOO EH DGGUHVVHG ÀUVW DUH VXVWDLQDEOH legislation is the next big step. The The Cambodians, says Jieun Lee, a forestry, waste management, and green lifestyle changes may take longer. WithSURJUDP RIÀFHU ZLWK ***, ´DUH QRW job creation. The master plan also has all government employees above aafraid of learning. They’re not afraid room for intensive analysis of economic certain level entitled to a ration of freeof potential hurdles that lie ahead no and institutional potential, training for petrol and some young civil servantsmatter how large. They know it’s a JRYHUQPHQW RIÀFLDOV DQG ORFDO H[SHUWV feeling the need to drive a Lexus to belong road and they will have to work and raising public awareness. taken seriously, more environment-hard to achieve success.” GGGI wants to assist Cambodia friendly transport still looms as a GGGI and the Government of to create jobs and new options for dream on the horizon.Cambodia are in the process of economic growth while learning from Adding that she’s excited bydeveloping a national green growth the Republic of Korea’s experience, Lee what has started in Cambodia, Leemaster plan for building up the says, referring to the Korean economy concludes, “They have potential tocountry’s capacity to go green. that grew into an industrial power be a great example to the rest of theAccording to Lee, the government from a garments export beginning ZRUOG ,W·V D QHZ ÀHOG :H·UH RSHQLQJhas committed to pursuing a but has been facing issues of air markets and opportunities. We want tomore sustainable model of growth pollution and other environmental show the world that this is possible—toto alleviate the strain placed SUREOHPV 6SHFLÀFDOO WKH 5HSXEOLF RI create a new way of growth that willon its environment and natural Korea can transfer the know-how and allow Cambodia to enhance economicresources. The master plan seeks to capacity generated through the creation growth while also preserving andestablish a national committee on green of concrete policies and institutions, promoting its environment and richgrowth to oversee the work to be done, she says. ecosystems.” Q ADB Annual Meeting ADwww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 39

6-- ;/, :/,3-The Price of Borderless EconomicsCivilization Chinese Sea Turtles, Indian Fridges and the New Fruits of Global CapitalismThe Price of Civilization By Robert GuestBy Jeffrey Sachs Palgrave Macmillan, November 2011, $27.00Random House, October 2011, $27.00 I n Borderless Economics, Robert Guest, business editorI n his latest book, Jeffrey Sachs, of The Economist, argues that “the free movement of one of the world’s leading people makes the world richer, accelerates technological development economists, offers progress, and helps disseminate good ideas, from a diagnosis of the economic genomics to democracy.”crisis in the United States, tracing the Guest notes that migrants create value in their adoptedroot of the problem country through the network of contacts that they build andto “the decline of maintain, thanks to cheap travel and cheap communications,civic virtue among such as through Skype. For instance, Indians in the UnitedAmerica’s political States collaborate with their colleagues in India to produceand economic elite.” $70 fridges and $300 houses. In the meantime, migrants also help boost their Sachs is the homeland’s economy through remittances and knowledge transfer. Known asdirector of The “sea turtles,” Chinese who study in the West and then return home share whatEarth Institute they have learned, including, the author hopes, democratic ideas.and professor of Before joining The Economist, Guest was the Tokyo correspondent for Thehealth policy and Daily Telegraph. He also wrote The Shackled Continent in 2004, which discusses themanagement at Columbia University. problems facing Africa.He is also special advisor to United “In this highly readable and personal account built on interviews withNations Secretary-General Ban emigrants from many countries, Guest… contends that voluntary emigrationKi-moon. DOPRVW DOZDV EHQHÀWV WKH HPLJUDQWV DQG XVXDOO EHQHÀWV WKHLU FRXQWULHV RI RULJLQ “This is the latest in a spate of books and destination, too. In recent decades, Chinese and Indian overseas diasporasprovoked by the world economic crisis have played a crucial role in generating rapid growth in their home countries,and one of the best… In The End of as their members have created businesses and opened foreign marketingPoverty he applied his clinician’s skills channels.”—Richard N. Cooper, Foreign Affairs Qto the distempers of Africa; in thisbook he turns them to the hubristicand wasteful habits of America. Thedetails of the Fall—if by that he means Grand Pursuit Nasar’s accountthe collapse of the American banking begins with Charlessystem in 2008—do not concern The Story of Economic Genius Dickens andhim; it is what the Fall tells us about By Sylvia Nasar Henry Mayhew incontemporary American capitalism.”— Simon & Schuster, September 2011, mid-19th-centuryRobert Skidelsky, The Guardian $35.00 London. “Before “Sachs manages to paint an alarming 1870, economics was Apicture of the US, while leaving the uthor of the bestseller, mostly about whatreader with a sense that its problems A Beautiful Mind, Sylvia you couldn’t do.DUH HPLQHQWO À[DEOH $ VHFRQG Nasar writes another book After 1870, it wasachievement is the sheer sweep of his on not just one but several mostly about what you could do,” sheDQDOVLV ZKLFK ÁRXWV WKH ERXQGDULHV “geniuses” in modern history. writes in the preface. The last chapterof economics to encompass politics, Grand Pursuit is about the men of the book is on India’s Nobel Prizepsychology and moral philosophy. The and women who transformed winner Amartya Sen.gain in perspective mostly outweighs economics from a dismal science to Nasar is the John S. and Jamesthe loss in authorial authority.”— “an instrument of mastery” that can L. Knight Professor of BusinessMartin Sandbu, Financial Times Q improve the human condition. Journalism at Columbia University.40 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

The Quest Stealth of NationsEnergy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World The Global Rise of the InformalBy Daniel Yergin EconomyThe Penguin Press, September 2011, $37.95 By Robert Neuwirth Pantheon, October 2011, $25.95T he Quest continues the story begun in Daniel Yergin’s A Pulitzer Prize-winning history of oil, The Prize. The fter writing about the new book draws on 5 years of research to provide world’s 1 billion informal a comprehensive analysis of the global energy market and the dynamics settlers in Shadow Cities,shaping its future. Robert Neuwirth focuses “The quest to secure the energy future will play out across the entire spectrum his attention on the informal economy,of energy—from traditional sources like oil and gas to renewable energy and estimated to be worth $10 trillion.LPSURYHPHQWV LQ HIÀFLHQF³DQG DV KLVWRU VKRZV XV D KHDOWK GRVH RI KXPDQ The book’s title, Stealth of Nations, is aingenuity,” says Yergin in a press statement. wordplay on Adam Smith’s Wealth of Yergin is a recipient of the United States Energy Award. He is chairman of Nations.Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA). Neuwirth notes “An even better book [than The Prize]. It is searching, impartial and alarmingly that the informalup to date…. Mr. Yergin brooks no cant about climate-change denial, and lingers economy, oron the topic of cleaner future fuels. Our heads may be buried in our sleek laptops System D (a termand gadgets, his masterly book announces, but our toes are still soaking in dirty, that originatedmorally contaminated oil.“—Dwight Garner, The New York Times in Francophone ´,W LV ÀUVW DQ DFFRXQW RI WKH PDQ ZDV LQ ZKLFK SHRSOH KDYH VRXJKW WR Africa and theproduce energy—by burning fossil fuels, harvesting the wind, brewing biodiesel Caribbean), isand trapping the sun’s heat. It is also an analysis of the increasingly fraught “based on smallSROLWLFDO FRQWH[W LQ ZKLFK WKLV EXVLQHVV LV FRQGXFWHG HVSHFLDOO ZLWK UHJDUG WR sales and tinythree big and longstanding fears: energy scarcity, energy security and, more and LQFUHPHQWV RI SURÀW HW LW SURGXFHVmore, the environmental ruin that energy can cause. The Quest is a masterly piece cumulatively, a huge amount of wealth.of work and, as a comprehensive guide to the world’s great energy needs and It is massive yet disparaged, open yetdilemmas, it will be hard to beat.“—The Economist Q feared, microscopic yet global.” Neuwirth has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fortune, and Wired +LV ÀUVW ERRN “Nasar’s aim… is not to write wonderful parts that one is inclined to Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, aintellectual history but to put the H[FXVH LWV VKRUWFRPLQJVµ—Justin Fox, New Urban World was published byreader into the lives of the characters The New York Times Routledge in 2004.of a sweeping historical drama that “If Nasar puts perhaps too much “A valuable book because itH[WHQGV IURP 9LFWRULDQ (QJODQG WR HPSKDVLV RQ WKH LQÁXHQFH RI HDUO challenges conventional thinkingmodern-day India. That she largely economic thinkers—who, after all, about what it means for an economy toVXFFHHGV UHÁHFWV WKH GHSWK DQG EUHDGWK were observing conditions rather develop…. Mr. Neuwirth argues thatof her research but also the elegance than creating them—she does show System D [the underground economy]of her prose.”—Steven Pearlstein, The how fully the profession has become fosters entrepreneurship while alsoWashington Post entwined with the way governments meeting governments’ needs to “At the core of Nasar’s narrative run…. Much of Grand Pursuit may be encourage employment; in some cases,is an account of the economically a reminder that as bad as things seem D PRGHVW DPRXQW RI WD[ UHYHQXH LV DOVRtroubled decades between the two now, they have been worse—much generated. Moving into the ‘formal’world wars, as told through the ZRUVH³DQG WKDW WKRVH GLIÀFXOW WLPHV sector, he suggests, may not be a goal toH[SHULHQFHV RI .HQHV ,UYLQJ )LVKHU can shed light on what is happening which entrepreneurs in poor countriesand Schumpeter and Hayek.… The today.”—Alana Semeuls, Los Angeles aspire.”—Marc Levinson, The Wall Streetbook as a whole is made up of so many Times Q Journal Qwww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 41

(9;0*3, Good Investment Investors willing to accept below-market returns to achieve positive social change are a rising force in global development BY Gregg JonesI n late May, in what has become an annual event, more than a dozen graduate business students from the United States spent 10 daysin Kenya, talking shop with grassrootsHQWUHSUHQHXUV DQG REVHUYLQJ ÀUVWKDQGthe power of free-market innovationand private-sector investments inÀJKWLQJ SRYHUW Around the same time, 650 corporateexecutives, fund managers, investors,academics, and ordinary citizens frommore than 50 countries gathered in theNetherlands to discuss how impactinvesting can lift living standardsand reduce environmental problemsaround the world. From Asia to Africa, from theAmericas and Europe to the MiddleEast, the deployment of patient capitalby investors willing to accept below-market returns to achieve positivesocial change is a rising force inglobal development. Combining theidealism of traditional philanthropywith the innovation of free markets,these pioneering social capitalists arepartnering with local entrepreneursto manufacture antimalarial mosquitonets in Tanzania, deliver electricity toslum dwellers in India, and irrigateparched farms in Pakistan, to name justa few projects—all while striving to PICTURE CREDIT: JUPITERIMAGES, AFP (INDIA)WXUQ D SURÀW In the last 4 years alone, more than these problems seriously will say we Their shared goal, says Kevin Jones, 100 new funds with the stated goal can solve everything with [traditionalfounder of a San Francisco, California- of investing for social good have development] grants, or that we canEDVHG LPSDFW LQYHVWPHQW ÀUP NQRZQ emerged. Tens of millions of dollars solve everything with the markets,”as Good Capital and the annual from these funds and more established says Sasha Dichter, director of businessSocial Capital Markets Conference, players, such as the Acumen Fund, are development at Acumen Fund. “Weis “investing with a desire for clear, delivering positive change to millions should ask what tools are there in themeasurable social and environmental of poor in the developing world. chest to solve this particular problem,impact.” “I don’t think anybody who takes DQG ÀJXUH RXW ZKLFK RQHV WR DSSOµ42 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

CLEAR VISION $ VWXGHQW GUDZV JUDIÀWL Acumen Fund’s $60 millionRQ D ZDOO LQ %DQJDORUH DV SDUW RI DQ investment portfolio at the end of theHH GRQDWLRQ FDPSDLJQ 1HZ <RUN “I don’t think anybody 2011 second quarter supported dozensEDVHG $FXPHQ )XQG VXSSRUWHG WKH who takes these of enterprises in India, Pakistan, andGHYHORSPHQW RI D ORZFRVW OHQV LQ ,QGLD East Africa. problems seriouslyWKDW FRXOG EH LPSODQWHG LQ WKH HHV RI Novogratz has become perhaps theSDWLHQWV EOLQGHG E FDWDUDFWV will say we can most recognizable public advocate solve everything for market-based solutions to poverty and other social and environmental with [traditionalCOLD-EYED WALL STREET APPROACH problems. Her 2009 memoir, The BlueAt the vanguard of the social capital development] grants, Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Richmovement is the New York-based or that we can solve and Poor in an Interconnected World,$FXPHQ )XQG D QRQSURÀW YHQWXUH became a New York Times best seller. everything with theFDSLWDO ÀUP WKDW LQYHVWV LQ HQWHUSULVHV It tells the story of her transformationthat provide clean water, health care, markets. We should from rising Wall Street banker tohousing, alternative energy, and ask what tools are SRYHUWÀJKWLQJ SLRQHHUother services to low-income people As a young globe-trotting banker there in the chest toLQ WKH GHYHORSLQJ ZRUOG 7KH ÀUP charged with reviewing Chasewas founded in 2001 by Jacqueline solve this particular Manhattan’s loans in Brazil and otherNovogratz, a former Chase Manhattan problem, and figure struggling economies, NovogratzEDQNHU DQG $IULFDQ PLFURÀQDQFH had been troubled by the fact that out which ones tospecialist who convinced the the bank’s doors were “closed to theRockefeller Foundation and a handful apply” poor and working class.” She began toof other donors to provide seed money ·:HZOH +PJO[LY KPYLJ[VY VM think how she could use her expertiseIRU D PDUNHWEDVHG DSSURDFK WR ÀJKWLQJ IZPULZZ KL]LSVWTLU[ H[ (JTLU to improve the lives of the world’sworld poverty. -UK dispossessed, and learned about thewww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 43

(9;0*3,INVESTING IN SOCIAL CHANGE 3DWLHQW products designer whose dripFDSLWDO LQYHVWRUV LQFOXGH H%D IRXQGHU irrigation systems have enabled 275,0003LHUUH 2PLGDU ZKR KDV VHW XS D VRFLDO “Through investment, small farmers to double their yieldsLQYHVWPHQW ÀUP FDOOHG 2PLGDU 1HWZRUN we seek to break the and income levels, and a company in Tanzania that employs more thanSLRQHHULQJ PLFURÀQDQFH ZRUN LQ cycle of dependence 7,000 people and produces 16 millionBangladesh by economist Muhammad that aid can create by lifesaving antimalarial bed nets a year.Yunus and his Grameen Bank. Back helping countries Over the past decade, Acumenin New York City, she quit Chase Fund and other impact investors haveManhattan and went to work for a build their own fostered dramatic changes in the worldQRQSURÀW PLFURÀQDQFH RUJDQL]DWLRQ institutions and their of philanthropy.for women, which sent her to Africa. own capacity to deliver “A lot more accountability has beenThere, she immersed herself in the built in,” says Dichter. “A lot morestruggle to overcome poverty. essential services. innovation has been built in. We have Over time, Novogratz became Aid chases need; a lot more success stories, not just fromconvinced that the traditional investment chases patient capital but across the board. Wedevelopment approach of throwing have a lot more players coming in. AtPRQH DW SUREOHPV ZDV ÁDZHG opportunity” Acumen, we have put $60 million ofThe solution, as she saw it, was to ·/PSSHY` *SPU[VU <UP[LK :[H[LZ capital to work, serving tens of millionsinvest donations in entrepreneurial :LJYL[HY` VM :[H[L of people.”enterprises that provided basic servicesto the poor. It would be a cold-eyed A GROWING FRACTIONWall Street approach, with two notable Only a fraction of the world’s capital isexceptions: greater patience and a cost lens that could be implanted in the devoted today to impact investments,tolerance for lower returns. eyes of patients blinded by cataracts— such as those made by Acumen Fund Acumen’s initial investments restoring sight, as well as the ability to and its peers. But the space is attractingfocused on technology-driven health work. growing interest and excitement,care efforts in India and East Africa. More recently, the fund’s investments experts say, and support from suchOne of these involved supporting the have included partnering with an ZRUOG ÀJXUHV DV IRUPHU 86 3UHVLGHQWwork of Govindappa Venkataswamy in entrepreneur in India whose company Bill Clinton, whose Clinton Globalproviding affordable eye care to India’s is providing safe water to more than Initiative has promoted patient capitalpoor, including development of a low- 250,000 rural poor, an agricultural as a development tool.44 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

NET INVESTMENT 6RFLDO FDSLWDOLVWV DUH SDUWQHULQJ ZLWK ORFDO HQWUHSUHQHXUV LQ 7DQ]DQLD WR PDQXIDFWXUH PRVTXLWR QHWV D FULWLFDO WRRO LQ WKH ÀJKW DJDLQVW PDODULD */2%$/ &$03$,*1(5 )RUHLJQ 0LQLVWHU <DQJ -LHFKL RI WKH 3HRSOHҋV 5HSXEOLF RI &KLQD VKDNHV KDQGV ZLWK IRUPHU 86 3UHVLGHQW %LOO &OLQWRQ DW D PHHWLQJ RI WKH &OLQWRQ *OREDO ,QLWLDWLYH ZKLFK KDV SURPRWHG SDWLHQW FDSLWDO DV D GHYHORSPHQW WRRO DPRQJ RWKHUV In 2008, Clinton launched an the Netherlands, drew more than 650 “The students learn how other initiative by LeapFrog Investments, an people from 50 countries. people really live and why we need international microinsurance fund, to innovation and entrepreneurship so place $100 million in Asian and African CHASING OPPORTUNITY desperately,” says Christensen. “They businesses, providing insurance to Major development institutions, also see there are a lot of indigenous WKH SRRU³D ÀQDQFLDO VHUYLFH VHHQ DV such as the United States Agency for local entrepreneurs who aren’t waiting crucial to lifting people from poverty. International Development (USAID), for us to drop something into their After only 18 months, LeapFrog are embracing the possibilities of free- lap, and they see that not all great announced in 2010 that it had raised market investments as well. USAID innovations are coming from the US.” $137 million for its microinsurance has a Global Development Alliance In Washington, DC, Secretary of State investments in Africa as well as India, team that coordinates with private Hillary Clinton has acknowledged the Indonesia, and the Philippines. Its sector corporations and foundations work of Acumen Fund and the power LQYHVWRUV LQFOXGHG WKH :DOO 6WUHHW ÀUP and manages 10 “global frameworks” RI VWUDWHJLF LQYHVWPHQWV LQ WKH ÀJKW J.P. Morgan, the World Bank, corporate signed between USAID and private- against global poverty. Traditional reinsurer Flagstone Reinsurance sector partners. aid would remain a “vital tool” for Holdings, and Omidyar Network, the At leading US universities, graduate the foreseeable future, especially VRFLDO LQYHVWPHQW ÀUP FUHDWHG E H%D students are studying impact investing in assisting the victims of naturalPICTURE CREDIT: AFP, EYEPRESS NEWS (YANG JIECHI AND BILL CLINTON) founder Pierre Omidyar. and the efforts of patient capital- disasters and other emergencies, she A focal point of inspiration and infused entrepreneurs in developing says. But strategic investments would ideas has become the annual Social countries. eventually supplant traditional foreign Capital Markets Conference, which Lisa Jones Christensen, an aid, she predicts. held its fourth annual gathering assistant professor of strategy and “Through aid, we supply what is last fall in San Francisco. The buzz entrepreneurship at the University needed to the people who need it—be surrounding SOCAP, as it is commonly of North Carolina’s Kenan–Flagler it sacks of rice or cartons of medicines,” known, has grown each year since it Business School in Chapel Hill, recently she said in a speech last year. “But began with little fanfare in 2008. The returned from her annual immersion through investment, we seek to break 2009 conference attracted more than trip to Kenya, where her master of the cycle of dependence that aid can 900 participants from 32 countries. business administration students saw create by helping countries build The 2010 installment attracted 1,500 the real-life results of patient capital their own institutions and their own participants from 40 countries. The at work as entrepreneurs turned trash capacity to deliver essential services. ÀUVW 62&$3 (XURSH KHOG LQ ODWH 0D into cooking briquettes in a Nairobi Aid chases need; investment chases and early June 2011 in Amsterdam, slum. opportunity.” Q www.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 45

796-03,: 05 +,=,3674,5; A Life Examining Annie Duflo is part of a growing breed of young development professionals who are working to test the effectiveness of development programs BY Jade Lee-DuffyO n a sunny day in May, a surprise was waiting inside 300 primary schools across the African countryof Ghana. Instead of one teacher in theclassroom, now there were two. For 2hours a day, new teaching assistantswere going to help youngsters whocouldn’t read or perform simpleadditions in math. Hired through the country’s NationalYouth Employment Program, teachingassistants across 42 rural and urbandistricts had to be trained to teachlearning through playing games,singing songs, and presenting fun,child-friendly material that appealed to PICTURE CREDIT: AFP (PLAYING FOOTBALL), PHOTO OF ANNIE DUFLO COURTESY OF INNOVATIONS FOR POVERTY ACTIONall the senses. The impact evaluation of thisremedial education program in Ghana DUPLICATING SUCCESS Children playLV EHLQJ OHG E $QQLH XÁR RQH RI IRRWEDOO DW D SDUN LQ *KDQD $QQLH XÁRthe vice-presidents and the executive (right) has helped Ghana launch itsdirector at Innovations for Poverty Teacher Community Assistant Initiative$FWLRQ ,3$

D QRQSURÀW UHVHDUFK by adapting similar successful remedialorganization, based in New Haven, education programs in India.&RQQHFWLFXW $FFRUGLQJ WR XÁRseveral developing countries have a young development professionals wholarge fraction of primary students, aged work with economists in partnership6 to 10 years old, that were not learning with development organizations,basic literacy and numeracy skills. PLFURÀQDQFH LQVWLWXWLRQV JRYHUQPHQWVThe remedial program was targeted to and poverty alleviation programs tobreak this trend. develop and test solutions that aim With IPA projects in 46 countries, to improve the lives of low-income and aid organizations are fueling aXÁR·V GLUHFWLYH LV WR ÀQG RXW ´ZKDW families in developing countries. demand for more impact evaluations toworks and what doesn’t” when it By showing which programs are ensure that money for programs isn’tcomes to development programs FRVWHIIHFWLYH XÁR DQG KHU FROOHDJXHV wasted.and projects. Through the use of are helping to encourage evidence-UDQGRPL]HG LPSDFW HYDOXDWLRQV XÁR based programs and policies, and to GIVING A HELPING HANDand her network of researchers assess move much-needed funding toward XÁR·V ZRUN LQ GHYHORSPHQW VWDUWHGwhether development programs are these programs. As there is a growing in India in 2000. For half a year, shecost-effective and yield positive results. concern over the cost-effectiveness of volunteered in the Natural ResourceShe is part of a growing breed of programs, policy makers, governments, Development unit of Seva Mandir, a46 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

nongovernment organization (NGO) of Ghana, met with the teachers’in the historic city of Udaipur. She union, the NYEP, and they becamethen worked at the Jaipur branch of “My role is to reach LQWHUHVWHGµ VKH VDV ´(YHQ WKRXJK ZHPratham, an education NGO spread out to NGOs and are convinced that the program works,across India. Shortly after, in 2002, since it’s based on rigorous evidence,XÁR PDQDJHG D ODUJHVFDOH VXUYH governments and we are doing a new impact evaluationof 100 villages in Udaipur district explain to them in Ghana because the program willon health care status and health care what a rigorous always end up being a little differentdelivery, led by researchers at the [in another country]. Also, we areMassachusetts Institute of Technology evaluation is and evaluating different ways to do the(MIT) and Princeton University in how using evidence program to understand which one willcollaboration with the NGO Seva when designing their work best.”Mandir and the World Bank. The India program revealed it was )URP WR XÁR ZDV WKH programs can increase SRVVLEOH WR HPSOR ORZTXDOLÀHGexecutive director of the Centre for their impact; and to tutors to teach students in their ownMicro Finance at the Institute for help implement new communities basic skills in a relativelyFinancial Management and Research short time using a simple methodologyin Chennai. There she worked on studies” DQG ORZFRVW PDWHULDOV ´7KH NH LV WRimproving the accessibility and quality focus instruction at the child’s level—RI ÀQDQFLDO VHUYLFHV DQG HQFRXUDJLQJ has helped expand the organization’s and this can be done by having theseevidence-based policies through network of researchers to more than tutors teach the lower-performingresearch. 100 from about 40. In the last decade, students separately from the rest of the Helping others runs in the family. the demand for rigorous impact FODVV IRU SDUW RI WKH GDµ VDV XÁRXÁR ZDV LQÁXHQFHG E KHU PRWKHU evaluations by donors and practitioners In addition to helping students withViolaine, a pediatrician who works has increased tremendously, so essential skills, the TCAI provideswith the French-based NGO l’Appel, having more researchers to lead these employment for the assistants overwhich supports children of armed evaluations is key. These researchers 2 years, and salaries of about $60 aFRQÁLFWV DQG KHU VLVWHU (VWKHU ZRUN FORVHO ZLWK ,3$·V RIÀFHV LQ month from the government’s Nationalprofessor of poverty alleviation and countries, including Ghana, Kenya, Youth Employment Program.development economics at MIT and a Mexico, Mongolia, and the Philippines. One of the program’s unknownsfounder and director of the Abdul Latif is whether it’s best to pull studentsJameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), REMEDIAL EDUCATION IN GHANA out of class during school hours forwhich helps determine what types of The remedial education program or additional instruction (and miss partaid and antipoverty programs work in the Teacher Community Assistant of the regular class) or to wait untilpoor countries. Initiative (TCAI), currently being after school hours when they may be The IPA’s executive director also HYDOXDWHG E XÁR LV DQ DGDSWDWLRQ tired, hungry, and want to go homeholds a master’s degree in social of similar successful programs in ZLWK WKHLU VLEOLQJV XÁR VDV WKHsciences from l’École des Hautes Études India conducted by the NGO Pratham, are trying both options to assessen Sciences Sociales, l’École Normale and evaluated by J-Pal. Funded by ZKLFK PHWKRG LV EHWWHU ´:H DUH DOVRSupérieure in Paris, and a master’s the United Kingdom-based Children evaluating whether the programdegree in public administration in Investment Fund Foundation, the TCAI can work without assistants by justinternational development from the is being implemented by the Ghana training the teachers to assist theJohn F. Kennedy School of Government Education Services, in partnership weakest students,’ she adds. A surveyat Harvard University. with the National Youth Employment was conducted in December 2011 and ´0 UROH LV WR UHDFK RXW WR 1*2V Program (NYEP) and the Ghana another in August 2012 will take placeand governments and explain to them National Association of Teachers in to measure if the program has indeedwhat a rigorous evaluation is and how collaboration with IPA. improved learning levels.using evidence when designing their By sharing the results of the impact If the results of the study areprograms can increase their impact; HYDOXDWLRQV XÁR KDV KHOSHG WKH SRVLWLYH XÁR·V JRDO LV WR ZRUN ZLWKand to help implement new studies,” government adapt the program from the Government of Ghana to help scaleVDV XÁR ZKR JUHZ XS LQ 3DULV ,QGLD WR ÀW WKH *KDQD FRQWH[W ´,Q up the remedial program, taking it 6LQFH MRLQLQJ ,3$ LQ XÁR 2009, we approached the Government nationally in the future. Qwww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 47

9,*655(0::(5*, A Refreshing Development In remote, impoverished places where clean water and medicine are hard to find, people can still buy an ice-cold Coke BY Andrew Marshall I n 1988, when Simon Berry was a British aid worker in Africa, he made a connection between two facts that would change his life. Fact 1: In remote parts of Zambia, where families scratched out a subsistence living by farming, many young children died of preventable diseases, such as dehydration from diarrhea. Fact 2: In these same rural areas, you could almost always buy Coca-Cola. That’s when Berry, then a technical cooperation officer for the British aid program, made the connection: Could Coca-Cola’s unrivaled local distribution networks be harnessed to deliver simple but potentially lifesaving medicines to hard-to-reach places? Twenty years later, in a concerted attempt to answer that question, Berry and his wife Jane launched an independent nonprofit organization called ColaLife. The idea is to leverage Coca-Cola’s distributionPICTURE CREDIT: TIM DENCH/COURTESY OF SIMON BERRY channels to carry so-called social products—oral rehydration solution (ORS), zinc supplements, water purification tablets—that last mile to save children’s lives in developing BENEFICIARIES Two boys in Africa receive an AirPod. ColaLife wants to improve child mortality in remote communities by distributing anti-diarrhea kits through Coca-Cola’s extensive distribution network. 48 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, one don’t you make use of the unusedin seven children died before their fifth space instead?” she told him.birthday in 2008, estimates the United So was born the AidPod: a crush- “The unique thingNations. resistant, wedge-shaped canister about the Coca- Initially, Berry thought, one bottle of that fits snugly between the necks of Cola distributionCoke could be removed from a crate the Coca-Cola bottles. Ten AidPodsand replaced with a tube carrying the fit into a standard crate. “All we’re system isn’t the bitproducts. But Jane, who says she spent doing is using that unused space to from the bottler toher long evenings in Zambia “reading get vital products to the same places the wholesaler, butbooks on international development as Coca-Cola,” says Berry. “We’re justto find out why so much good-willed piggybacking—making use of a section from the wholesalersbut apparently misguided effort wasn’t of the human race who are particularly onwards. That’s whereworking,” had another idea. “Why good at getting stuff to remote places.” all these independent It’s a neat idea—so neat, in fact, that microenterprises— ColaLife has generated thousands of followers on social networks, such as guys on bicycles, Facebook, as well as an invitation for women putting crates Berry to speak at a TEDx community- on buses, and so on— run event in Berlin in 2010. But will it work? “We didn’t want to be take over. That’s the bit remembered as the guys who came we want to get into” up with this cool idea and did nothing about it,” he says. “So we gave up ·:PTVU )LYY` MVUKLY VM *VSH3PML our jobs last June [2010] to focus full- time on getting a trial going.” The “The unique thing about the Coca- results of that trial, which is planned Cola distribution system isn’t the bit to take place in Zambia, could have from the bottler to the wholesaler, implications for Asia, another vast but from the wholesalers onwards,” and often hard-to-access region where says Berry. “That’s where all these reducing child mortality is proving an independent microenterprises—guys uphill struggle. on bicycles, women putting crates on Persuading the world’s largest buses, and so on—take over. That’s the beverage company to even bit we want to get into.” contemplate putting somebody else’s The first ColaLife trial will take the stuff in its crates is “a big step,” says Berrys back to Zambia, the landlocked Berry. What the company calls the African country which first inspired Coca-Cola System is a mammoth them. First, however, together with and well-oiled machine, perfected two other ColaLife supporters, Berry over a century. While it operates in cycled across another country, France, more than 200 countries, Coca-Cola to raise £6,000 to pay for three trips to only makes the concentrates and Zambia. It was critical to first engage beverage bases for its soft drinks, and Coca-Cola’s local bottler, Zambian owns and licenses the brands. Nearly Breweries, a subsidiary of SABMiller, a 300 local bottling partners produce global brewing and bottling company and distribute the actual products, with a strong public commitment which are sold through millions of to sustainable development. The outlets: supermarkets, movie theaters, involvement of SABMiller in Zambia restaurants, street vendors—pretty means “we might get crossover of much everywhere humanity gathers. the [ColaLife] idea into another huge Coca-Cola says the world consumes multinational,” says Berry. 1.7 billion servings of its products ColaLife’s other partners in Zambia every day. are the United Nations Children’swww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 49

9,*655(0::(5*,Fund (UNICEF) and the state-runpharmaceutical distributor MedicalStores Limited. A local nongovernmentorganization called Keepers ZambiaFoundation will handle the socialmarketing in the communities, saysBerry, “to create buzz and awarenessand value around this kit we’regoing to distribute.” ColaLife plansto distribute at least 20,000 AidPodsto mothers and caregivers in 30communities, where most peoplesurvive on one or two dollars a day. “These are sparsely populatedareas where the provision of healthfacilities is very, very low,” explainsBerry. “There are only 70 registered year. ColaLife’s partnerspharmacies in the whole of Zambia, in Zambia want to test theand these are in the larger towns.” idea by delivering a singleHowever, kiosks selling basic goods— product: an anti-diarrhea kitwashing powder, cooking oil, biscuits, (ADK). “We want to get statisticallycigarettes and, of course, Coca-Cola— significant data,” explains Berry. “Ourare common, even in remote areas and main objective at the trial stage isthey could be tapped to deliver public not primarily to save children’s lives,health products. but to test whether we can use Coca- AidPods can be adapted to carry Cola’s distribution chain to create a READY FOR DELIVERY 7HQ $LG3RGV ÀWa range of products. One of them commodity that people will have in or into a standard crate.could be zinc. Given to children with very close to their households whendiarrhea, zinc supplements reduce the diarrhea strikes.” Trust, which carries out corporateseverity and duration of the illness, Open innovation has also helped social responsibility activities of theand could potentially save up to the AidPod evolve. If they are made Johnson & Johnson group in Europe,400,000 deaths of under-5 globally per of transparent PET (polyethylene Middle East, and Africa. terephthalate) plastic, AidPods The trial’s results won’t be kept might also be used for solar water under wraps, but will be published disinfection—a process known by on ColaLife’s website so that others “Much of the world’s the abbreviation SODIS. Fill a PET might adopt and adapt the idea for mortality can be container with contaminated water their own countries, including in Asia. and leave it in the sun for 6 hours, and “We want people to look at what prevented with the ultraviolet radiation should kill we’re doing [in Africa] and to apply existing solutions.... off the pathogens that cause diarrhea. it to local circumstances in Asia,” So the problem is not For cost reasons, Berry shelved the says Berry. “There is a lot of interest idea of producing AidPods from PET in ColaLife from India, but we don’t so much about what’s plastic. But the Swiss Federal Institute have the capacity to develop things PICTURE CREDIT: COURTESY OF SIMON BERRY needed. It’s more about of Aquatic Science and Technology there. So our strategy is to make all the how to effectively recently sent him samples of a information available. All the learning prototype SODIS bag that would fit we generate goes up on the website.” deliver what is needed into a standard AidPod. Knowledge-sharing is part of to those who need it ColaLife has raised $1.35 million an open innovation process that most” to date, which will enable it to run has helped the Berrys refine their the trial with local partners by early embryonic idea and attract new ·7ISPJ OLHS[O HK]PZVY 9VOP[ 2012. Among the first donors was the expertise. Rohit Ramchandani was a 9HTJOHUKHUP Johnson & Johnson Corporate Citizen senior health advisor at the Canadian50 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

International Development Agency sector played a key role in the Scaling as adults from obesity or diabetes?”when he first contacted Berry through Up Zinc for Young Children (SUZY) Berry is unfazed. “All we’re doingColaLife’s Facebook group. Now Project, initiated in 2003 by the is using that unused space in a cratestudying public health at Johns International Centre for Diarrhoeal to get this vital product to the sameHopkins Bloomberg School of Public Disease Research, Bangladesh places that Coca-Cola gets to,” he says.Health, Ramchandani is helping (ICDDR,B) in partnership with For Berry, building unlikely alliancesconstruct ColaLife’s trial in Zambia the Bangladesh Ministry of Health between businesses and public healthand will use its results as the basis of and Family Welfare. A Bangladesh is the whole point. “Together, wehis doctoral thesis. conglomerate called ACME believe, we can do it. There is no point “We’ve reached something of a Laboratories Ltd made the zinc tablets sitting in our silos, throwing bricks atcrossroads in public health,” says in its pharmaceuticals division and one another, when there is so much atRamchandani. “Much of the world’s distributed them through its food and stake.”mortality can be prevented with beverage division. And so much left to do. Oneexisting solutions. Research has shown “For the big health problems now of the UN’s eight Millenniumthat over 60% of child deaths could and in the future, we cannot rely only Development Goals is to reducebe prevented each year if the world’s on what the public health sector can the under-5 mortality rate by two-children received full access to already deliver in nations that have fragile thirds between 1990 and 2015. “Childexisting, often low-cost interventions, health systems,” says Tracey Pérez deaths are falling, but not quicklysuch as ORS and zinc. So the problem Koehlmoos, head of the Health & enough to reach the target,” reportsis not so much about what’s needed. Family Planning Systems Programme the UN. “Revitalizing efforts againstIt’s more about how to effectively at ICDDR,B and principal investigator pneumonia and diarrhea, whiledeliver what is needed to those who of the SUZY Project. “It’s not enough. bolstering nutrition, could saveneed it most.” So any engagement [with the private millions of children.” Leveraging the private sector to sector] would be beneficial, so long as Berry sees ColaLife as part of thatdistribute public health products it’s done with government approval revitalization. “It will be decadesisn’t new. In Bangladesh, the private and partnership.” before we get child mortality rates With ColaLife, the Coca-Cola in developing countries that we Company—which has a raft of would think acceptable in the United philanthropic projects—is engaged, Kingdom,” he says. “It could be more if not quite effusive. “We have been than 175 years. We need to carry on in contact with ColaLife and have with incremental improvements, but supported them to identify a suitable we also need innovation.” bottling partner, SAB Miller, willing Is there the possibility that ColaLife to conduct a pilot project with them,” might not work? “Yup,” admits says Sebastian van der Vegt, group Berry happily, exuding his trademark communications manager, in a optimism. “But we’re going to get statement. “We understand that the caught trying.” Ramchandani, the pilot will take place in Zambia and will public health expert, puts it more focus on distributing [anti-]diarrhea cautiously. “The reality is that there kits to hard-to-reach areas. We look is a lot of great [health] interventions forward to learning from the results of that don’t demonstrate statistically the pilot project once it’s completed.” strong results, and are therefore never ColaLife supporters who hail shared. That’s why it is so important from health or humanitarian fields to incorporate evaluation into the might not be natural supporters of a research design early on, and shareLIFESAVER The AidPod was designed to corporate behemoth that makes fizzy lessons learned along the way—contain “social products,” such as zinc drinks. “In the age of chronic disease, something that ColaLife is doingsupplements, oral rehydration solution, big food and big beverage sort of extremely well.”DQG ZDWHU SXULÀFDWLRQ WDEOHWV ,W LV D come off as being the bad guys,” says “Where will happiness strike next?”crush-resistant, wedge-shaped canister Koehlmoos. “Do you want your life- asks a Coca-Cola slogan. The questionWKDW ÀWV VQXJO EHWZHHQ WKH QHFNV RI WKH saving solution being packaged with now is: Where will ColaLife strikeCoca-Cola bottles. what might make these children suffer next? Qwww.development.asia January–March 2012 Development Asia 51

65 ;/, 9,*69+ “I would like to reiterate that we face daunting challenges. Asia’s growth has brought significant benefits to the region. But it is an unfinished agenda, with the majority of the world’s poor still in Asia. The region is at a critical crossroads. We must continue to be proactive.” —Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda, speaking at the Eminent Persons’ Forum in New Delhi, India in October 2011 “The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and“We must connect the dots between the best lifestyles, but there is one thingclimate change, water scarcity, that money doesn’t seem to have bought:energy shortages, global health, food an understanding that their fate is boundsecurity and women’s empowerment. up with how the other 99 percent live.Solutions to one problem must be Throughout history, this is something thatsolutions for all.” the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late.”—United Nations Secretary-General BanKi-moon, addressing the United Nations —Economist and Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz,General Assembly in September 2011 writing for =HUP[` -HPY in May 2011 “In 10 years, you’re not going to have 700 million cars driven every day on the planet; you’re going to have 2 billion. If you already have an emissions problem with 700 million cars, what problems are you going to have with 2 billion?” PICTURE CREDIT: UN PHOTO/MARCO CASTRO (BAN KI-MOON), AFP —Nissan Chief Executive Officer“Social issues are far more complex Carlos Ghosn in an interview withto deal with than business problems, -HZ[ *VTWHU` in 2011, where heand it’s very hard to change things. It talks about why the market is ready for an all-electric carneeds tenacity and humility. And whileindividually it may be hard to see whatdifference we can make, if we stick tothe task with tenacity for a sustainedaction, it will surely work.” “Global warming is real. Perhaps our results will help cool this portion of the climate debate.”—Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro, whodonated $2 billion to his education —Richard Muller, a prominent physicist and skeptic of global warming, writes infoundation, the largest charitable the >HSS :[YLL[ 1VYUHS LQ 2FWREHU DIWHU KLV VWXG FRQðUPHG WKH UDSLG ULVH LQcontribution in India’s modern history the Earth’s surface temperatures52 Development Asia January–March 2012 www.development.asia

Work for Asia and the Pacific.The only development bank dedicated to Asia and the Pacific is hiring individuals dedicated to development. ADB seeks highly qualified individuals for the following vacancies:(QHUJ 7UDQVSRUW 6DIHJXDUGV 3ULYDWH 6HFWRU )LQDQFH 5LVN 0DQDJHPHQW ,QIRUPDWLRQ 7HFKQRORJ Women are encouraged to apply. For more details, visit www.adb.org/Employment/International

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