The Asian Development Bank (ADB) through its draft energy policy announced that it will not finance any coal mining, oil, and natural gas field exploration, drilling, or extraction activities, and it will no longer finance any new coal-fired capacity for power and heat generation or any facilities associated with new coal generation, Trend reports citing the ADB.
Impacted communities and civil society organizations worldwide that have been urging the ADB to stop funding coal see this as a landmark decision.
The ADB also indicated in the draft energy policy that it would support Developing Member Countries (DMCs) to mitigate the health and environmental impact of existing coal-fired power plants and district heating systems by financing emission control technologies.
However, Bank watchers see this policy as a reason to raise new risks for the gas industry.
Rayyan Hassan, executive director of NGO Forum on ADB explained that ‘the new draft Energy Policy announcing an end to coal finance is much-delayed justice for all the affected communities across Asia impacted by ADB Coal (Phulbari Coal mine Bangladesh, Tata Mundra Coal project India, Visayas Baseload and Masinloc Coal Project Philippines, Jamshoro Coal project Pakistan). We commend this very immediate move away from coal by the ADB in its Energy Policy review this 2021, as we are at the brink of a climate apocalypse as there is hardly any time left to avert global temperature rise beyond 1.5 degrees.’
