The CCET organized an in-house seminar inviting Mr. Tim Kasten, Deputy Director of Economy Division, UN Environment and Dr. Agamuthu Pariatamby, Professor at Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Malaya on 21st October 2017 at IGES headquarter in Hayama. The seminar was moderated by Mr. Kazunobu Onogawa, Director of CCET and attended by IGES researchers.
Mr. Tim Kasten delivered a presentation entitled “UN Environment Programme, Economy Division supporting countries to implement the 3Ds, Decarbonize, Decouple and Detoxify”, Following a brief introduction of the structure of Economy Division and the range of works assumed by each sub-unit, he explained the concept of “3’D’s”, the three pillars representing the activities of UN Environment for supporting countries, which are, decarbonize (Energy and Climate), decouple (Resources and Markets), and detoxify (Chemicals and Health), and further illustrated the key action areas and initiatives under each pillar. He also emphasized the importance of working through collaboration with private, public, and civil society, as well as partnership with other UN sister agencies in order for a division with less manpower to execute diverse projects activities, generate impact, and fulfil its mandate globally.
In the area of Energy and Climate, the division is providing policy relevant scientific information for efficiency and renewables, policy advise, while catalizing public and private finance for clean energy and promoting low emission technologies through such initiatives as Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), and Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC).
In the area of Resources and Markets, the division is promoting the decoupling of economic growth from resource use and environmental impact so that human well-being and economic development (represented by GDP) can be achieved in a sustainable manner. 10 Years Framework of Programmes for Sustainable Consumption and Production was explained in relation to the 2030 Agenda and SDGs, while the work of International Resource Panel as a science-policy interface for driving policy development were explained. Finally, he concluded the presentation by explaining the work of Division in creating scientific knowledge through development of knowledge products, advancing global policy-making and partnerships, and capacity development and implementation in the area of Chemicals and Health.
Dr. Agamuthu Pariatamby delivered a presentation titled “Technical cooperation for waste management in Asia: How can we make cooperation more efficient and effective?” He first examined three modes of technical cooperation (academic level, government-to-government, and private sector cooperation) and highlighted their characteristics: cooperation in academics, tends to be dynamic and mutual in nature, while developed countries tends to be resource side providing fund and technical expertise and developing countries be at the demand side, as exemplified by research funds on current research topics for better innovation and research outputs. Government-to-government (G-G) cooperation tends to be more binding, politically controlled, and sometimes less efficient or unsuccessful, causing a miss-match to local needs due to political influence to decision-making process. On the other hand, private sector cooperation tends to be very efficient because companies always look for win-win situation where well tested technology is provided from developed countries (i.e. WtE projects from developed countries to Asian countries). He highlighted the challenges in technology cooperation – selection of wrong and/or unproven technologies, funding issue, and lack of expertise at recipient side for sustaining the technology after transfer. The knowledge dissemination, effective agreements on mutual trust, equal partners’ basis, shared profit/outputs, as well as exploring win-win options can help to enhance cooperation of effective technology transfer. Finally, Dr. Agamuthu concluded by highlighting that waste sector plays a crucial role in achieving the SDGs, thus technology transfer in the sector is essential, and institutional drivers are necessary to overcome the various factors affecting the ability of each country to incorporate new technology, and to promote successful technical cooperation.