Mobilizing Private Capital to Reduce Methane Emissions from Waste in Emerging Markets

The waste sector is a major and under-addressed source of methane emissions, accounting for approximately 20% of human-caused methane globally. Mature and proven technologies like anaerobic digestion and landfill gas to energy are readily available and widely deployed in developed markets, although adoption in emerging economies has been slow.

Many project developers in emerging markets are unable to access financing to support project development. Despite demand for capital, the lack of credible, bankable waste methane projects limits its supply as many projects fail to meet the investabilty requirements that capital providers demand.

Focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and Nigeria, where methane action has been gaining momentum, RMI consulted with several private financial institutions, development banks, municipalities, project developers, and carbon market experts to identify the most promising markets to catalyze large-scale financing for mature and proven waste methane technologies.

This report presents a geographical prioritization framework and identifies prime opportunity hubs like São Paulo and Bangkok as the highest-impact, lowest-risk investment opportunities today. These markets are the most investable near-term opportunities, where private financial institutions can lead the deployment of capital to accelerate methane mitigation in the waste sector.

Successfully deploying private finance at scale will require de-risking early-stage investments. This includes building a pipeline of investment-ready projects, providing concessional capital and grant funding, and strengthening carbon markets to properly quantify the value of low carbon investments. Together, these steps can enable investors to monetize environmental attributes and improve investment returns.