- Climate starts with SEA
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- 🔦 10 highlights from 34 issues
🔦 10 highlights from 34 issues
✍🏻 70K words later, here we are!
Climate starts with SEA
July 07, 2024
Hello! Halo! Kumusta! Xin chào! สวัสดี! မင်္ဂလာပါ! ជំរាបសួរ! ສະບາຍດີ!
👋🏻 After a monthlong hiatus, we’re back!
📝 If you’ve been a subscriber for awhile, then you’ll know that since we launched our newsletter 10 months ago, we’ve published 34 issues. Knowing that each issue averages around 2 thousand words, we were curious to actually add up all of the word counts…
📚 We were shocked to discover that it’s a grand total of 70 thousand words, which is in the ballpark range for the average length of a novel!
🔦 Because we’ve written so much in the past (nearly) year and we’ve gotten quite a number of new subscribers since we first started, we thought that it would be fitting to do a recap issue, highlighting the top 10 learnings from our past 34 issues.
🎓 Recapping our top 10 highlights
We will highlight a quote and a statistic from each of the below issues. The number contained within the brackets of the sub-header represents the number of the issue that it’s from.
😷 Air Pollution with Piotr of Nafas [#1]
From our very first issue, which covered on air pollution, we learned what a huge impact the toxic fumes commonly found in large Southeast Asian metropolises like Jakarta can have on public health.
 | There is no silver bullet nor one magical switch that will turn off pollution. Everything is contributing to it: factories, cars, power plants, ports, construction, ships, agricultural burning, etc. Air pollution is a systemic problem, meaning that the entire ecosystem needs to change. Piotr Jakubowski, Co-Founder of Nafas |
5.5 less years of life expectancy due to air pollution in Jakarta (AQLI, 2021).
♻️ Waste Management with Fauzal of Sampangan [#2]
In our second issue, which covered waste management, we learned just how mismanaged waste is in Indonesia and Southeast Asia more broadly.
 | On average in Indonesia, only about 30% of waste created is collected by the government and sent to landfills, the rest is discarded in open dumps, burned, etc. Yes, the overcapacity landfills across Indonesia, represent only a third of all generated waste! M. Fauzal Rizki, CEO & Co-Founder of Sampangan |
400K Number of homes that could be powered for a year if the methane emissions from Indonesia’s Bantar Gebang landfill are harnessed properly (GHGSat, 2023).
❄️ Refrigerants with Louis of Recoolit [#10]
On our tenth issue we discussed the outsized role that chemical coolants like CFCs & HCFCs play in global warming, given that they’re many orders of magnitude more potent compared to CO2. This is an increasing problem in places like Southeast Asia vis-a-vis developed countries due to higher population growth and rapid rates of urban development.
 | We can’t live without cooling: in a warming climate and in countries like Indonesia it’s a fundamental human right. When I learned more about the problem I realized there’s a huge opportunity to tackle this problem by combining environmental goals with economic growth. Louis Potok, CEO & Co-Founder of Recoolit |
9,000X more global warming potential from the chemicals used in refrigeration & air conditioners compared to carbon dioxide (Project Drawdown, 2023).
⛈️ Climate Disasters with Nashin of Peta Bencana [#14]
During our 14th issue, we discussed the importance of adapting quickly to climate disasters, which are increasing in frequency due to the effects of climate change; this is especially critical in Southeast Asia given that we reside in a particularly typhoon and flooding prone area.
 | I noticed that disasters disproportionately impacted those with less resources; however, at the same time I also noticed that in spite of having less resources to cope with disasters, Indonesians exhibited such a strong spirit of “gotong royong”, finding ways to help each other through strong community bonds, no matter what. Nashin Mahtani, Director of Peta Bencana |
5X increase in frequency of climate-related disasters over the past 50 years (UN, 2021).
💦 Aquaculture with Guntur of DELOS [#17]
With our 17th issue—our last of 2023—we dove into the blue economy of aquaculture, focusing on shrimp cultivation in particular, which is a huge industry across in Southeast Asia and it’s growing fast!
 | Aquaculture yields (as well as volumes and profits of farms) still wildly fluctuate between cycles and areas. This has resulted in Indonesia becoming less competitive in the global seafood market, despite having the most potential. On top of that, the fact that our aquaculture industry is super fragmented doesn’t allow for operational efficiency or synergies across the value chain, which, again, makes us less competitive! Guntur Mallarangeng, CEO & Co-Founder of DELOS |
90% of aquaculture production is in Asia, with over 20% in Southeast Asia despite it only making up 3% of landmass (Asian Scientist, 2023)
🌱 Regenerative Agriculture with Max of Agros [#19]
In our 19th issue, we learned about how unsustainable farming practices are harming our planet. Feeding Southeast Asia’s rapidly growing population is putting a strain on our food system.
 | The ironic thing about regenerative agriculture is that it’s a bit like going back in time; you start seeing practices that were applied by farmers hundreds of years ago without the use of fossil fuels, using less chemicals, no tilling, and rotating crops. Over the last few decades, large profit-seeking corporations have shifted us towards monoculture, machinery and chemicals to feed a growing population. This has come at a huge cost—for farmers and the planet. |
110B metric tons of carbon from the top layer of soil—roughly equivalent to 80 years’ worth of present-day US emissions—has been released since agriculture began (MIT, 2024)
🍜 Food Security with Ayesha of ARK Solves [#22]
Our 22nd issue explored the nexus between climate change, agriculture and food security—a critical poverty trap that needs to be solved as smallholder farmers and other rural populations grow increasingly vulnerable.
 | …The problem being that farmers in the Philippines and other parts of the developing world are struggling to feed their families. I found this incredibly wrong because these are the very same farmers who feed the world the food we cannot live without. Ayesha Vera-Yu, CEO & Co-Founder of ARK Solves |
2.4B individuals or around 3 in 10 people suffer from moderate or severe food insecurity (FAO, 2023).
💸 Climate Venture Capital with Alina of Radical Fund [#26]
From our 26th issue, we learned about the massive amount of economic value that can be generated from investing in climate and nature positive solutions in Southeast Asia.
 | No longer is Climate Tech seen as impact-only, or impact-first, but rather as an investment strategy that delivers profits with purpose. Alina Truhina, Managing Partner of The Radical Fund |
$2T per year of economic benefits and 232 million jobs created from investing $200B between now and 2030 to protect forests, seas, and biodiversity in SEA (GCA, 2019).
🚀 Climate Venture Building with Marie of Wavemaker Impact [#29]
On our 29th issue, we discussed the important role that venture building has in catalyzing highly impactful & scalable ClimateTech ventures in Southeast Asia.
 | The evolution of the startup ecosystem in the region means that we have a large pool of experienced entrepreneurs and operators that know how to create value for customers, build products and scale teams… In a lot of cases, commercially ready technology exists—what’s missing is the incentives and business models that drive adoption at scale. Marie Cheong, Founding Partner at Wavemaker Impact |
$800B financing gap for both mitigation & adaptation needs in developing Asia (IMF, 2024).
🔋 Energy Storage with Bryse of StB Giga [#33]
In our 33rd issue—one of our most recent—we discussed the critical role that batteries play in our energy transition. As ASEAN countries like Vietnam and Philippines blaze ahead with renewables like solar & wind, the ability to store that energy sustainability when production is high but demand is low for use when demand is high but production is low is key in maintaining sufficient energy supply.
 | The perception of costs lags the reality, often for years. In the early days of solar, projects required subsidies to make them financially viable, but solar prices continued to drop (80% since 2010), and now solar is one of the cheapest forms of energy on the planet. But people still associate them with subsidies. The same is happening for batteries now. The prices of battery cells are projected to fall by 50% this year by two of the largest global manufacturers Bryse Gaboury, Chief Revenue Officer of StB Giga |
90% the amount of battery demand that’s projected to be driven by EVs by 2032 (Wood Mackenzie, 2023).
🗞️ Recent News
👍🏻 Good News
👎🏻 Bad News
❓ Did you enjoy this week’s issue? If yes, please do forward to your friends who would enjoy the read as well.
📧 Also, feel free to let us know what you thought by giving us feedback at [email protected].
🌊 SEA you next week!
Karina & Massimiliano