CLIMATE TRANSITION Meeting the Net Zero Challenge in Asia As part of a special miniseries on Exchanges at Goldman Sachs, Accelerating Transition, Goldman Sachs Global Head of Climate Strategy Kara Mangone spoke with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice President Ahmed Saeed about a unique effort that connects public and private sectors to leverage capital to accelerate the transition to a net zero future in Asia. KM: What are the key priorities for the Asian Development Bank? What are your top strategic priorities today? AS: We’re working with governments to provide them with the financing they need to do the things they must around building sustainable infrastructure and around mitigation and adaptation planning in a number “Our role as we see it in that process of different ways. But those sums will simply not be is to become a better collaborator achievable through the public sector alone, and we need the private sector to step up in a big way. Our and partner.” role as we see it in that process is to become a better collaborator and partner. AHMED SAEED Vice President for East Asia, Southeast Asia, KM: What does this partnership look like for you? and the Pacific, Asian Development Bank AS: Firstly, the fact that the private sector needs to act doesn’t mean that the private sector has all the tools it needs at its disposal. In particular, the interface with government is absolutely critical. And so multilateral KM: One of the solutions is going to be pulling together development banks have a very unique role to play different sources of capital — how do you see this in helping the private sector engage government. … playing out in markets? The Climate Innovation and Development Fund with AS: Decarbonization is development. The single greatest Bloomberg and Goldman Sachs is one example of a opportunity that countries in Asia and elsewhere in the very high-impact collaborative model. world will find to mobilize capital — and capital married to skills and technology to come into their countries — is going to be around decarbonization agendas. I really think the biggest opportunity in emerging markets is to pivot from a conversation that this is a price to be paid to a dialogue that says, “Wow, this is an unbelievable opportunity to improve the livelihoods of people.” And I think it happens to be true. Sustainability Report 2021 Climate Transition | Meeting the Net Zero Challenge in Asia 3939