What is the ADB?
The ADB stands for the Asian Development Bank. As a development bank, its mandate is to reduce poverty, primarily through lending money for development projects to governments. The ADB claims that environmental considerations are a high priority because sustainable development and conservation is essential to reducing poverty. Part of their environmental statement is to "empower the poor and give them a stake in managing the environment and natural resources."
What's so bad about that?
The words sound nice, but the reality is much different. In the past the ADB has funded projects that have lead to disastrous environmental and social consequences. And the ADB has not learned from its mistakes- it continues to back damaging projects like coal-fired power plants. Ironically, the very people the ADB claims to protect, the poor, are the ones who suffer the brunt of the harmful effects.
The ADB is a publically funded institution but is not held accountable to the public. Both taxpayers in donor countries and citizens of developing countries (including those in local communities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and even government) have no say in which projects get funded. So how are the decisions made? Money talks, and those who get to speak the most are lobbyists representing powerful corporations.
Dirty Energy
Unfortunately, some of the companies most successfully lobbying the ADB promote dirty energy. Between 1970 and 2003, the ADB co-financed projects to the tune of US$40.6 billion, 41% of which was to the energy sector. Of the ADB's entire Energy Portfolio Financing from 1966-2004, only 1.82% went towards funding renewable energy and energy efficiency. The overwhelming majority of financing is geared towards fossil fuel power projects such as the Masinloc coal plant in the Philippines and Southeast Asia’s largest and most notorious coal plant in Mae Moh, Thailand. Since Mae Moh began operations in 1955, 30 000 people have been displaced, almost 200 killed and thousands suffer from respiratory problems caused by inhalation and exposure to sulfur dioxide from the mine and the power station.
What can be done?
Clean alternatives to fossil fuel power in Asia are widely available. In the Philippines enough wind power potential exists to produce 7 times over the country’s current energy demand. In the Chinese province of Guangdong there exists sufficient wind power potential to meet the equivalent of the current energy supply in Hong Kong.
Organizations like the ADB need to stop fuelling the problem of climate change and start financing cleaner, safer solutions.
The ADB stands for the Asian Development Bank. As a development bank, its mandate is to reduce poverty, primarily through lending money for development projects to governments. The ADB claims that environmental considerations are a high priority because sustainable development and conservation is essential to reducing poverty. Part of their environmental statement is to "empower the poor and give them a stake in managing the environment and natural resources."
What's so bad about that?
The words sound nice, but the reality is much different. In the past the ADB has funded projects that have lead to disastrous environmental and social consequences. And the ADB has not learned from its mistakes- it continues to back damaging projects like coal-fired power plants. Ironically, the very people the ADB claims to protect, the poor, are the ones who suffer the brunt of the harmful effects.
The ADB is a publically funded institution but is not held accountable to the public. Both taxpayers in donor countries and citizens of developing countries (including those in local communities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and even government) have no say in which projects get funded. So how are the decisions made? Money talks, and those who get to speak the most are lobbyists representing powerful corporations.
Dirty Energy
Unfortunately, some of the companies most successfully lobbying the ADB promote dirty energy. Between 1970 and 2003, the ADB co-financed projects to the tune of US$40.6 billion, 41% of which was to the energy sector. Of the ADB's entire Energy Portfolio Financing from 1966-2004, only 1.82% went towards funding renewable energy and energy efficiency. The overwhelming majority of financing is geared towards fossil fuel power projects such as the Masinloc coal plant in the Philippines and Southeast Asia’s largest and most notorious coal plant in Mae Moh, Thailand. Since Mae Moh began operations in 1955, 30 000 people have been displaced, almost 200 killed and thousands suffer from respiratory problems caused by inhalation and exposure to sulfur dioxide from the mine and the power station.
What can be done?
Clean alternatives to fossil fuel power in Asia are widely available. In the Philippines enough wind power potential exists to produce 7 times over the country’s current energy demand. In the Chinese province of Guangdong there exists sufficient wind power potential to meet the equivalent of the current energy supply in Hong Kong.
Organizations like the ADB need to stop fuelling the problem of climate change and start financing cleaner, safer solutions.
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