Principal Climate Change Specialist, Head of Carbon Market Program, Asian Development Bank
Toru Kubo holds a Master’s degree in Energy and Environmental Policy from CEEP and is now the Principal Climate Change Specialist and Head of Carbon Markets at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Shortly after joining ADB in 2004 as the organization’s first full-time staff to focus on climate change mitigation issues, he designed and launched the Carbon Market Initiative, now a $275 million program which focuses on providing up-front carbon finance and technical assistance to promote low-carbon programs and projects across developing economies in the Asia-Pacific region. He is also in charge of designing and implementing initiatives focused on accelerating the diffusion of climate change mitigation and adaptation technologies, new market mechanisms to address energy security, and public-private partnership schemes to leverage private capital for climate change solutions. During 2011 he was on an eight-month special assignment to the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to support the design of the Green Climate Fund and the Climate Technology Centre and Network. Prior to joining ADB, he served as the Asian Business Manager and Policy Analyst at Trexler Climate + Energy Services, an energy sector business consulting firm in Portland, Oregon, and Research Associate at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a non-profit think tank in Washington, D.C.
Toru believes that the path of development in Asia, with its enormous population and rapid economic rise, can make or break global efforts in addressing climate change as well as food/water/energy security. He is focused on enhancing dialogue between policy makers, practitioners and knowledge institutions to help integrate sustainability concerns into core development priorities so that Asia can successfully shift towards more inclusive and sustainable patterns of growth.