INCHEON, South Korea—Civil society organizations called on the Asian Development Bank to be more transparent in its efforts to finance energy technologies that may not all be clean and green.
“There is no justice in a power sector that ties consumers to decades more of high electricity prices, communities to continued pollution, or countries like the Philippines that have been battered far too much already by catastrophic climate disasters to greater climate vulnerability fueled by fossil-based energy,” Arances said.
She stressed that new gas projects can also lock greenhouse gas emissions for years and delay the clean energy transition. This, she said, will undermine energy security and sustainable development. Meanwhile, in a news conference on Tuesday, ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa assured the public that Manila-based multilateral development bank has no plans of financing new coal projects as part of its commitment to the Paris Agreement.