The Asian Development Bank (ADB) expressed hope the Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM), which is being piloted in three countries including the Philippines, will become one of the most powerful carbon reduction models in the world.
In a livestreamed interview at the 55th ADB Annual Meeting which started yesterday, ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa said he is “quite sure” that the ETM is going to be a successful model in the Asia-Pacific region.
“It could be, it should be replicated in other parts of the world,” Asakawa said.
Aside from the Philippines, the ETM is also being piloted in Indonesia and Vietnam.
“In our region, there are so many coal-fired power plants existing and operating. And they are relatively young… less than 20 years old… 90 percent of those young coal-fired power plants are said to be here in Asia, so if we do not do anything, they just stay on,” he said.
“What we need is to let them retire early. ETM will do that job,” he added.
The ETM is an innovative blended-finance approach that seeks to retire existing coal-fired power plants on an accelerated schedule and replace them with clean power capacity over the next 10 to 15 years. It will bring together public and private funds to support the shift to renewable energy.
“ETM would unlock investment in renewable energy, clean energy so that they can promote the smooth transition from coal to renewable energy in each country,” Asakawa said.
The ETM project in the Philippines is piloted in Mindanao, where the Agus-Pulangi hydropower plants will be rehabilitated and expanded to enable the early retirement of coal-fired power plants.
