Environmental group, Center for Energy, Ecology and Development (CEED), has urged the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to ban investments in coal-fired power plants in Asia to help the region in its energy transition.
“Thanks to the lenient Energy Policy it adopted in 2009, ADB is guilty of having shaped Asia’s energy sector into its carbon-intensive state today. No amount of renewable energy investments could cover up the bank’s role in advancing the myth of clean coal and the fact that half of the total installed capacity of power generation projects it funded the past decade are from fossil fuels,” said Gerry Arances, CEED executive director, said in a statement.
CEED made this call ahead of the bank’s annual governors’ meeting this week.
Arances said ADB needs a new energy policy to accurately respond to Asia’s needs which can begin by completely dropping new coal investments amid the worsening climate crisis, deteriorating air quality, increasing viability of renewable energy as well as the need for a green recovery to support environmental and economic imperatives highlighted by the pandemic.
Based on ABD’s 2019 annual report, 25 percent of its $102.6 billion overall portfolio is for energy projects, the bank’s second most funded sector. However, it did not break down the types of energy investments made.
ADB has ongoing programs meant to boost the development of renewable energy projects including the Clean Energy Program; Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility; Climate Change Fund, Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Climate Change; and the Energy For All Initiative.