Southeast Asia has become a hotspot for climate change. The El Nino phenomenon continues to cause erratic weather and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which is projected to climb significantly over the next two decades. Given that Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to the effects of climate change, the region must expedite its sustainable development to safeguard its future.
Decarbonisation is a natural first step because it directly targets carbon emissions. However, implementing decarbonisation initiatives can be complex, especially as we struggle to understand how our industrialised societies can rapidly reduce the energy demand that has driven prosperity and wealth in the region.
We take a look at how climate tech startups are pushing for green practices in Singapore
Notwithstanding the approach, we must find our own pathways towards going net zero, and time is not on our side. Every organisation’s journey will be different. Yet, the collective power of will, exemplary leadership and most importantly, transparency and trust, are critical to getting us to the desired outcomes.
Technology drives transparency
Data is Transparency, and Transparency begets Trust. Hence, embracing technology that enables accurate collection, ingestion, and analysis of carbon data for subsequent decision-making will build confidence for businesses to make long-term investments towards sustainable impact and their net zero goals.
Overall, data pedigree and data integrity are fundamental to building business confidence. Moreover, such technologies can ensure that future carbon trading marketplaces also function with high levels of transparency and trust when bridging their supply with demand at scale.
Integrating digital tools such as the cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) can further enhance carbon data management. These technologies work in tandem as a coordinated system built round-the-clock for accurate carbon monitoring and data extraction.
Decarbonisation at scale through natural capital monetisation
Natural capital monetisation is a new type of digital decarbonisation strategy that is gaining traction. The solution can come in a platform that quantifies, verifies, and monetises a country’s natural assets as high-value carbon credits. Given the scale of the underlying natural assets, individuals and companies can leverage these credits and secure a long-term supply. These assets can then be used to finance environmentally-friendly projects and local sustainable initiatives.
To effectively conduct natural capital monetisation, businesses must establish a robust and scalable digital infrastructure that can integrate various data streams. These streams can be sourced from carbon project documentation, remote sensing, carbon stock and land-use/land-cover (LULC) computations, pricing data, and predictive AI.
Businesses can choose to train their employees on these technologies internally. Alternatively, they can partner with market-proven experts to leverage present digital tools for seamless technology integration. Within these partnerships, businesses must educate themselves on the technical aspects of carbon data tracking.
For example, carbon data collection may involve the use of greenery identifiers. Hence, businesses can enhance their data collection processes by observing and combining readings from various IoT devices with high-resolution satellite images. Subsequently, they can leverage AI to automatically extract and analyse this data, and before storing it on the cloud.
Human-centricity in tech is also vital
A digital solution is only as good as its usability, which is why businesses must always keep end-users in mind when they design their decarbonisation solutions. For instance, businesses can sync their natural capital monetisation solutions to agricultural land registries in the region.
This can empower farmers and other members of the agriculture industry to accurately assess their lands’ conditions, which is especially important because agriculture generates 10 to 12 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Moreover, with their solutions’ effective tracking and data transparency, businesses can also broaden the admission of agricultural participants into the carbon credit ecosystem – further boosting decarbonisation.
Partnerships and collaboration will accelerate green transitions
Effective decarbonisation in Southeast Asia requires innovative and scalable solutions, which can be accelerated by active collaboration between knowledge experts and technology. Such collaborations are also vital in cultivating next-generation talents that can bring even fresher insights into the integration of technology with sustainability.
As Southeast Asia braces itself for the imminent effects of climate change, we must constantly leverage rapidly evolving digital technologies into sustainability to accelerate our path to net zero.
The article titled “Digital transformation is critical for catalysing Southeast Asia’s green transition” was authored by Srijay Ghosh, Founding Member, Chief Revenue Officer at Temus
About the author
Srijay Ghosh is the Founding Member and Chief Revenue Officer at Temus, a digital services company majority owned by Temasek. Srijay oversees the execution of Temus vision-to-value proposition and is responsible for all revenue-related and client-engagement segments of the organization, ecosystem outreach and M&A.
An engineer by education and following a stint in the Silicon Valley, Srijay is a Techie at heart and is passionate about investing in Tech and on how Tech can be applied with simplicity to solve complex problems the world faces today. He is particularly intrigued by the human and behavioral aspects of how Tech is adopted, used, and consumed (or not!); the founding of Temus is a manifestation of this.
He joined Temasek in 2012, spending most of his time investing in the Tech sector (covering consumer internet, IT hardware, services, and Telco portfolios) and is now concurrently a Managing Director at Temasek, driving its Enterprise Development initiatives. In 2018, Srijay led Temasek’s investment in UST, its subsequent strategic partnership with Temus and currently is a Board Member of UST. Prior to Temasek, Srijay held various roles in the Investment Banking and in the semiconductor industry.
Srijay’s diverse experiences have all been in a self-pursuit to drive societal impact through his various roles. He is passionate to shape Temus as a living lab where everyone is empowered to drive societal change with Tech towards serving their purpose and where the talent of tomorrow is nurtured.