Editor's note
The Asian Development Bank has recently released its draft energy strategy. It intends to guide the operations and focus of the Bank’s energy sector in the coming years.
However, the draft strategy is not only problematic in terms of flawed assumptions and contradicting
statement but it fails to show how ADB will meet the growing energy demand of Asia and the Pacific region in a sustainable way and how it will provide energy access for all. It does not show how the Bank will address the increasing rate of poverty incidence and global warming. Moreover, as it is clearly stated, the Bank will not only play a very minute role in energy solutions, in terms of renewable energy and promotion of energy efficiency, but will even increase the risk of the region of being heavily impacted by climate change with its continuous strong support for fossil-depedent projects, such as coal and oil.
Inspite of the consultations that were held with the ADB, civil society groups have expressed their disappointment over the non-transparent process of the ongoing Energy Policy review in terms of timely, clear and relevant information. The lack of provision for a 30-day
commenting period before the first subregional consultation was a clear manifestation of the Bank’s intention not to provide any space for meaningful and significant participation by civil society in coming up with real sustainable solutions on the ongoing energy and climate crises. This was further aggravated by the absence of a clear and objective criteria on the selection of participants for the consultation, boxing out affected persons and communities who have been directly harmed and violated by its funded energy projects.
This issue of Bankwatch provides some of the views of Forum’s network members and partners on the ongoing review of ADB’s Energy Policy and its draft strategy. This quarter’s Banwatch calls on the ADB to reconsider its position in funding climate change-inducing, fossil fuel-dependent and unsustainable energy projects. It calls on the Bank to put an end to its destructive energy projects and channel its resources instead for the development of efficient and reliable renewable and sustainble energy sources.
The Bank has always been claiming that the very reason for its existence is to end poverty in Asia and the Pacific region. It has been claiming that one of its primary goals is to help promote sustainable development in the region. It is high time that the Bank keeps its word for the sake of the people whom it supposed to serve. It is high time that the ADB steps up to the challenge of providing
leadership in ending the energy crisis in Asia and the Pacific and making the region less vulnerable to climate change.