International Environmental Technology Center
Keith Alverson, Director

Waste to Energy: Considerations for Informed Decision Making
and Contributing to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
Kawasaki Eco-Business Forum
13 November, 2019

The International Environmental
Technology Centre’s vision isfor countries to implement
sustainable solutions toenvironmental challenges, withfocus on holistic waste
management.
IETC assists countries to identify andimplement sustainable technologicalsolutions to environmental challenges
UNEP (2019) IETC Annual Report 2018www.unenvironment.org/ietc/report/ietc-annual-report-2018

IETC Publications:
Waste Management Outlooks and Thematic Reports• Global, Regional and Thematic Waste
Management Outlooks• Thematic Reports• Compendia of Technologies andGuidelines

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www.unep.org/publications/

IETC: Results
Number of Governments, Businesses, Industries, and Civil Society
Organizations Influenced on waste management
29
27

25

23

21

19

1715
2013

Governments

2014

Businesses and industries

2015

2016

Civil society organizations

IETC support to countries around the world
National and/or city level strategy development
Implementation
NEPAL
MONGOLIA

TAIJIKISTANBHUTANPAKISTAN
HONDURAS

JAMAICATHAILANDLEBANON

SAINT LUCIAVIETNAM

BAHRAINGHANAMYANMARUGANDAKENYACAMBODIAMALDIVESURUGUAYTANZANIAPHILIPPINES

INDIA

MAURITIUS

Many cities and countries are working with IETC
to improve Waste Management Governance

MALAYSIAUNEA 4 Resolutions (3/2019)
UNEP/EA.4/Res. 6 Marine plastic litter and microplastics
UNEP/EA.4/Res. 7 Environmentally sound management of waste
UNEP/EA.4/Res. 8 Sound management of chemicals and waste
UNEP/EA.4/Res. 9 Addressing single-use plastic products pollution

1011Japan – History and Trend

Developing vs. Developed Countries

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What Monitoring can look like!
Japan Plastic WasteManagement Institutewww.pwmi.org.jp
Chart Units: Kilotons in 2017

Climate vs Plastic
Climate Change

Plastic Pollution

Scientific understanding is robust

Scientific understanding is low

Impacts are enormous

Impacts are unknown

Monitoring is global and sustained

Monitoring is nonexistent
Research surprises are common

Mitigation is mostly Global

Mitigation is mostly Local

Adaptation is mostly Local

Adaptation is unspoken default

Climate vs Plastic
Constraints and Solutions
Climate Change

Plastic Pollution

Technology is a limiting constraint.

Technology exists.

Carbon Capture and Storage?
Unproven.

Myriad solutions.

Funding is a limiting constraint.

Funding is in the private sector.

Mostly public sector.

Cost-Benefit.

Global carbon tax? Unpalatable.

Promising.

Societal Constraints are limiting.
Local, national, global and difficult.
Differentiated responsibility.
Demographics.
Consumerism.

Societal Constraints are mostly local.
Difficulty is unknown.
“Zero” plastic is unachievable andundesirable. Asymptotic.

Achieving the SDG’s

Achieving Monitoring the SDG’s

The SDG’s are obviously unachievable. Consider Goal 1 “End poverty in allits forms everywhere (by 2030)” or Target 15.2 By 2020, promote theimplementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt
deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increaseafforestation and reforestation globally. A more reasonable verb than‘achieve’ is probably “monitor”.
Demonstrating how actions we were carrying out anyway are contributing
to the SDG’s (mapping exercises) is just beancounting. A more interesting
mapping would be to demonstrate what the advent of the SDG’s has added
to already existing actions.
“Zero waste” is asymptotically difficult – the last little bit is the hardest. If
every person/country were to achieve 50% less waste, it would be easier,and a better outcome, than if a few ideal people/countries come close tozero.

KeithAlverson@AlversonKeith@unep_ietc

unep_ietc
www.unep.org/ietc/

keith.alverson@un.org

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