CSOs call on ADB to stop financing false climate and energy solutions

As the Asian Development Bank (ADB) hosted Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) closed, almost 40 regional and international civil society organisations (CSOs) launched a statement, calling on ADB to stop financing false climate and energy solutions.

The statement highlighted ADB’s new Energy Policy, approved in October last year, which – despite ruling out investments in coal and coal-related infrastructure – still explicitly enables financing for the build up of carbon-intensive oil and gas dependent infrastructure, including LNG terminals, toxic waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration, the development of new hydropower projects, and vastly expensive fossil fuel dependent carbon capture ventures.

In the statement the groups argued that false climate and energy solutions will not only have real impacts on peoples’ livelihoods across Asia, but will also determine if the pathway followed is one which will hasten – or undermine – progress towards a just, inclusive, sustainable and rights-based transition. It emphasised that civil society groups will remain attentive to the plans advanced for green (and not-so-green) energy investments, ready to hold the Bank accountable – as at stake is the stark reality of who may live and who may perish in the years ahead.

Read the full statement here.