CSOs raise alarm over ADB’s rushed energy policy review amid escalating climate crisis

Manila, Philippines - Civil society organizations (CSOs) across Asia are raising serious concerns about the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) fast-tracked review of its 2021 Energy Policy, warning that the process is dangerously short and excludes meaningful public participation. NGO Forum on ADB, a regional network of over 250 people’s movements, NGOs, and affected communities monitoring the Bank, calls on ADB to halt the rushed timeline and instead ensure inclusive, transparent consultations—particularly with those most affected by its destructive projects.

According to ADB’s internal schedule, the entire policy review is expected to conclude within just three months—a deeply inadequate timeframe for a policy that will shape the Bank’s energy investments and climate strategy for the next decade.¹

“Rushing the Energy Policy review in the middle of a worsening climate crisis is reckless and unacceptable,” said Rayyan Hassan, Executive Director of NGO Forum on ADB. “This policy will determine the future of ADB’s energy investments for the next decade—yet the Bank is sidelining the very communities most impacted by its projects. A credible energy policy demands full transparency, democratic participation, and a clear break from fossil fuels and destructive infrastructure. Anything less is a betrayal of the region’s right to a just, equitable, and climate-resilient future.”

Across Asia, the climate crisis is no longer a distant threat—it is a daily, deadly reality. Just last week, Tropical Storm Wipha (Crising) intensified monsoon rains in the Philippines, displacing over 90,000 people, affecting more than 800,000, and submerging parts of Metro Manila.² In Vietnam, the same storm triggered deadly flooding and prompted an unprecedented deployment of 350,000 soldiers in anticipation of up to 50 cm of rainfall.³

In South Asia, the situation is equally dire. In Pakistan, intensified glacial melt and monsoons have killed over 240 people, with one cloudburst claiming more than 200 lives.⁴ Heatwaves in both India and Pakistan have pushed temperatures to nearly 48°C, overwhelming power systems and resulting in hundreds of deaths.⁵ Nepal has suffered flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), while erratic monsoons continue to displace communities across Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and India.

Yet instead of responding with climate justice and urgency, ADB is rushing through a policy review that risks locking Asia into the very systems driving these disasters. CSOs warn that the Bank’s continued financing of fossil gas infrastructure, mega-dams, and waste-to-energy incinerators—often under the guise of a “just transition”—betrays its own climate commitments. These harmful investments pollute ecosystems, displace Indigenous and low-income communities, and deepen national debt burdens.

Moreover, ADB’s support for mineral-intensive “green” technologies fails to address the violent and exploitative realities tied to critical mineral extraction. These are not bridges to a sustainable future—they are extractive, debt-driven traps that perpetuate inequality and harm under a false climate narrative.

“We are deeply concerned that the ADB Energy Policy is shifting to support more extractive projects such as mining, gas, and coal energy developments that are displacing and harming affected communities,” said Jaybee Garganera, National Coordinator of Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM). “While the objective to reduce emissions is laudable, the approach of expanding investments in extractives—while reducing safeguards and genuine, meaningful consultations with communities and CSOs—loses the bigger picture of achieving Paris alignment and driving sustainable development in the region. ADB must not support extractive projects that are violating environmental laws, are non-compliant with their own contractual obligations, tend to spread misinformation or exploit lack of access to information, and fail to promote or fulfill human rights obligations.”

Forum network emphasizes that without full public disclosure and meaningful consultation, the revised Energy Policy will exacerbate, not address, the intersecting crises of climate injustice and inequality across Asia and the Pacific. Rushing this process is not simply a procedural misstep—it is a political choice that shields corporate interests from accountability.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) recently issued a landmark advisory opinion affirming that climate inaction—especially by major emitters and institutions—may constitute a breach of international law. The ICJ recognized the “urgent and existential threat” of climate change and emphasized that emissions are “unequivocally caused by human activities which are not territorially limited.” This should be a wake-up call for the ADB: it cannot continue business as usual while the climate crisis accelerates.

“In recent years, the Asia-Pacific region has faced unprecedented extreme weather events, leaving communities increasingly vulnerable to climate-induced risks. The ADB, while branding itself as a ‘Climate Bank,’ continues to promote false solutions disguised as ‘low-carbon technologies’, diverting attention from real solutions: people-centered renewable energy systems. The ongoing Energy Policy Review raises serious concerns, including the lifting the ban on nuclear investments and supporting co-firing technologies under coal retirement schemes signal a dangerous move that derails its climate commitments and deepens complicity with major climate polluters,” said Nazareth Del Pilar, Just Transitions Advocacy Officer at NGO Forum on ADB.

NGO Forum on ADB and its allies demand that the ADB halt this fast-tracked review, release all policy drafts to the public, and meaningfully engage the communities most impacted by its energy projects. Anything less is a clear abandonment of accountability and justice. A climate-resilient future for Asia cannot be built through closed-door consultations and superficial timelines—it must begin with a fundamental reckoning with the ADB’s role in fueling the crisis it claims to address.

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References

1. Al Jazeera. (2025, July 22). Typhoon Wipha whips Vietnam as Philippines flooding displaces thousands. Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/22/typhoon-wipha-whips-vietnam-as-philippines-flooding-displaces-thousands

2. Reuters. (2025, July 22). Tropical Storm Wipha makes landfall in Vietnam; heavy rains persist in Philippines. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/tropical-storm-wipha-makes-landfall-vietnam-heavy-rains-persist-philippines-2025-07-22/

3. Al Jazeera. (2025, July 22). Rains, flash floods kill 21 in Pakistan; tourists rescued in hilly north. Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/22/rains-flash-floods-kill-21-in-pakistan-tourists-rescued-in-hilly-north

4. Deutsche Welle (DW). (2025, June 25). Northern India and Pakistan scorched by relentless heatwave. Retrieved from https://www.dw.com/en/northern-india-and-pakistan-scorched-by-relentless-heatwave/a-72878150

5. Reuters. (2025, July 8). Dozens missing after floods near Nepal–China border. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/dozens-missing-after-floods-nepal-china-border-2025-07-08/

6. Rappler. (2024, April 2). World court says climate change is ‘existential threat’. https://www.rappler.com/world/global-affairs/world-court-says-climate-change-existential-threat/