Carbon Finance and Decentralized Composting in Asia

Abstract

The solid waste sector is a significant contributor to methane (CH 4 ) emissions with a global warming potential (GWP) of 21 times more than that of CO 2 bringing the need for preventive actions from this sector. In the recent years, composting projects both centralized and decentralized have proved to be addressing this issue. However, much of the decentralized composting projects failed due to their financial and other operational constraints that arise during the course of the implementation. On this regard, the current article reviews the potential of carbon finance as an opportunity for funding decentralized composting projects through demonstrating the application through emission calculation of four cities in Asia. On assessing the emissions, it also identifies the benefits associated with the emissions reduction from the composting projects which might not be available in the absence of the projects. The article also discusses the various carbon financing strategies available in the present market to identify the potential market for inclusion of decentralized composting projects. In the process, the article identifies the issues in the implementation of decentralized composting projects under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and other carbon markets in general.

Past, present, and future of sustainable finance: insights from big data analytics through machine learning of scholarly research

“…New research in the subsequent decade (1996–2005) extended understanding on socially responsible investing in terms of its performance against conventional funds (Guerard & John, 1997 ; Hutton et al, 1998 ; Statman, 2000 ) and the need to expand its scope to account for ethics (Wilson, 1997 ) and the environment (Heinkel et al, 2001 ) such as climate change and renewable energy (Van Der Laan & Lansbury, 2004 ). The later decade (2006–2015) sees the introduction and boom of new research such as carbon finance (Aglietta et al, 2015 ; Bredin et al, 2014 ; Purdon, 2015 ; Yenneti & Gamaralalage, 2012 ; Yeoh, 2008 ), climate finance (Brunner & Enting, 2014 ; Hogarth, 2012 ; Jakob et al, 2015 ; Vanderheiden, 2015 ), conscious capitalism (Sisodia, 2009 , 2013 ; Wang, 2013a , 2013b ), ESG-CSR and firm performance integration (Dorfleitner et al, 2015 ; Eccles & Viviers, 2011 ; Friede et al, 2015 ; Halbritter & Dorfleitner, 2015 ; Himick, 2011 ; Nielsen & Noergaard, 2011 ), and ethical investing (Bauer et al, 2007 ; Belghitar et al, 2014 ; Chow et al, 2014 ; Pender & Brocchetto, 2011 ; Richardson, 2009 ; Säve-Söderbergh, 2010 ; von Wallis & Klein, 2015 ; Watson, 2011 ). The most recent half decade (2015–2020) is characterized by research responding to the Paris agreement and the launch of the SDGs in 2015, with exponential growth in publications focusing on impact investing (Agrawal & Hockerts, 2019 , 2021 ; Caseau & Grolleau, 2020 ; Lieberman, 2020 ; Robb & Sattell, 2016 ; Viviani & Maurel, 2019 ) innovative financial instruments such as social impact bonds (Carè et al, 2020 ; Giacomantonio, 2017 ; Rizzello & Kabli, 2020 ; Torre, et al, 2019 ), and ESG investing and firm performance (Alessandrini & Jondeau, 2020 ; Chen & Mussalli, 2020 ; Giese et al, ...…”

Financial sustainability of modern composting: the economically optimal scale for municipal waste composting plant in developing Asia

“…1 Municipal waste compositions in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Indonesia and PR China the registered CDM composting projects fall in the category of medium-to large-scale composting plant (Fenhann 2012). The smaller composting plants are not qualified to receive carbon credits due to insufficient greenhouse abatement potential set by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) regulation (Yenneti and Premakumara 2011). Thus, the small-scale composting plants are often dependent on municipal provision to launch and sustain its operation.…”

Financing resource recovery and reuse in developing and emerging economies: enabling environment, financing sources and cost recovery

“…Diverting organic waste to composting can thus generate carbon offsets for carbon markets. Many composting plants fail because of constraints in financing and operations, and carbon finance could help to close these gaps (Yenneti and Gamaralalage 2012). For example, Waste Concern in Bangladesh and the Temesi integrated resource recovery center in Bali each earned USD 1.5 million in carbon credits.…”