The ADB is currently revising its energy policy, which will guide its investment decisions for the next decade.
What the Bank decides now will set the course for whether we cut global carbon emissions by 2030 and stop harming communities with dirty fossil fuel projects, or fail to protect our planet and communities.
This year’s policy review – the first in over a decade – is the bank’s chance to set a new direction.
Governments in the UK, EU, and US have made strong commitments to stop financing fossil fuel infrastructure at home and abroad. This follows the European Investment Bank’s groundbreaking commitment to end its financing of oil, gas, and coal projects.
We can’t address the climate emergency if the ADB continues to fund the crisis.
“The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. It assists its members and partners by providing loans, technical assistance, grants, and equity investments to promote social and economic development.”
– The Asian Development Bank
The ADB’s support for gas, oil, and coal undermines its own mission. The ADB’s financing is fueling the climate emergency and harming communities and ecosystems.
If the Bank continues to support fossil fuels, it will undermine global climate action and put local communities’ health and livelihoods at risk.
Below are articles about the campaign or supporting the need for a fossil free ADB:
“The Asian Development Bank’s Green Future” – Foreign Policy, June 8, 2021
“ADB’s Double Standard On Fossil Fuel Investments” – Energy Tracker Asia, May 25, 2021
“ADB rules out coal, sets conditions for gas projects in draft energy policy” – The Straits Times, May 10, 2021
“ADB Closes in on New Energy Agenda Amid Calls to Exit Fossil Fuels” – Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2021
“ADB gas financing hurts its climate credentials, green groups say” – The Straits Times, May 4, 2021
“NGOs call on ADB to end fossil fuel loans amid climate reboot” – Reuters, May 2, 2021
“Energy financiers in Asia must stop supporting region’s costly addiction to LNG and coal power” – South China Morning Post, April 18, 2021
“Why Can’t ADB And AIIB Make A Resolute Stand Against Fossil Fuels?” – Business Mirror, April 22, 2021
“New International Group Urges ADB To End Fossil Fuels Financing” – Business Mirror, March 4, 2021
The new ADB draft energy policy has some key improvements, but still falls far short of what is needed for climate leadership as it leaves space for continued large-scale gas investments. Continued support for long-lived carbon-intensive gas infrastructure threatens to impede a just transition to renewable energy.
The Asian Development Bank issued its draft energy policy on Friday following the conclusion of its 54th Annual Meeting and clarion calls from the United Nations to end financing for all fossil fuels including gas. This first draft has ruled out financing for coal but allows for continued gas finance which dominates the ADB’s fossil fuel lending.
A new analysis shows the Asian Development Bank has spent $4.7 billion financing gas projects in the region. This undermines its stated commitments on climate and efforts to achieve a “prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific.”
This new analysis finds the ADB has spent over $4.7 billion on gas since the adoption of the Paris Agreement. Plans to expand gas infrastructure in Asia pose one of the greatest threats to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and averting the most catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis.
