ADB to release energy strat this quarter?
11 August, Manila – If the ADB’s Energy team would have their way, the new energy strategy should be released this quarter so that they can begin work on its operational and implementing documents according to a Bank energy specialist. Upon the issuance of the strategy, which is anchored on the 1995 energy policy, the Bank will craft the country and energy sector road maps that operationalize it per country.
In a recent meeting with the NGO Forum, the energy team member said the only pending matter pertains to the format of the strategy, which is now being finalized by the Strategy and Policy Department, Secretary’s Office and the Office of the General Counsel. All working group level issues and concerns related to the contents of the Energy Strategy have been resolved he said.
It will be recalled that the initial draft of the energy strategy came under fire from a number of stakeholders for its mediocre quality and “business-as-usual” framework during the entire process of the energy policy review and sub-regional consultation more than a year ago. The Forum criticized the draft for failing to adopt a pro-poor and pro-environment energy paradigm while Greenpeace described it as a “badly prepared high school term paper” for its flawed assumptions and absence of clear targets, thresholds and indicators. The strategy has undergone a series of revisions since July 2007.
Regarding the possibility of giving stakeholders the chance to comment on the final version of the energy strategy before its official release, the energy specialist said the ADB does not find any merit in holding another public consultation or public commenting period after the format issue has been resolved because Management has approved the draft last May.
In the meeting, the energy team member said the energy strategy maintains the position of the ADB in a number of core energy issues as follows:
- No financing of nuclear. The ADB primarily thinks there’s enough bilateral financing of nuclear projects that they have no role in this sector. It was not mentioned however that they are not funding nuclear projects for environmental or massive economic subsidy issues.
- The Bank’s position on bio-fuels has been described as “constructive ambiguity.” ADB will support further studies on this sector as there’s not much information about which crop should be best utilized for energy source, etc. The Bank considering these concerns seriously – food security, energy balance of crops, and environmental impacts such as land use.
- The ADB endorsed the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) last January. Also, the Bank would support activities on gas given its low-carbon rate compared to other fossils. Bank support for oil project would be in limited terms even if area has proven reserves because of the large private sector role in this sector. On coal extractives, it will maintain captive use/mine-mouth only policy.
- The Bank is maintaining its position on hydropower projects.
- The energy strategy will use key indicators such as the $1-billion annual clean energy facility (ACEF), which civil society groups had a big role in creating. Assuming quality projects, this represents over 17% of the previous typical annual spending (not just the energy sector) of the ADB or at least 10% of the same assuming this year's $10-b lending. In both cases, 17% or 10% are far higher proportions than what the supposed leader – the World Bank – should be allocating annually.
The energy team member also responded to other energy strategy questions:
- ADB’s response to the external comments matrix will be released simultaneously with actual release of the new energy strategy. The ADB committed to respond to all issues in the comments matrix and show which ones were adopted by the new strategy (with reference to page and paragraph number in actual new strategy), which ones were considered (not necessarily wholly adopted), and which ones could not make it to the new strategy.
- The Bank plans to release the English, Russian and Chinese versions all at the same time. It is still not sure if the division in charge of (and with a budget for) translations will agree. The NGO Forum informed him that there’s also a need to translate the document into Bahasa Indonesia
- The NGO Forum pointed out the ADB website does not contain any information or matrix that would show how the $1 billion ACEF has been spent – it was announced in the Asian Clean Energy Forum in June that the ADB had met its target ahead of schedule. The energy specialist agreed that it is important to demonstrate to the public where the $1b went and promised that their team will do something about this.
-The energy team has not ruled out the possibility of holding a seminar/s as well as promoting the strategy in international energy conferences. They’re thinking about booklets both in English and translated versions that will be widely disseminated in member countries.
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