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THE
Asian Development Bank (ADB) this week released the
consultation draft of its proposed energy strategy
update to deal with issues like energy demand, security
and access, governance and climate change by 2030, among
others.
“The
emerging issues and options . . . require a realignment
of ADB’s operation in the energy sector to place greater
focus on addressing challenges the sector faces today:
meeting energy security and transition to a low-carbon
economy,” the bank’s draft noted.
An
earlier assessment of ADB’s energy involvement called
for a deeper focus on concerns like sector reforms,
commercialization including private sector
participation, coordination with development partners,
tackling of environmental and social issues, and use of
long-term multitranche financing facilities.
Public
consultations are tentatively scheduled on June 14 in
Almaty, Kazakhstan for Central Asia, June 18 for South
Asia, July 6 for China and Mongolia, and July 13 for
Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
But
nongovernment groups and civil-society organizations are
apprehensive that ADB’s new energy strategy may only
further rationalize the hypocrisy of what the bank says
and what it actually does.
“The
bank in its draft does not talk of reducing energy
demand . . . instead it talks of mechanisms to keep that
energy demand,” Hemantha Withanage, executive director
of the NGO Forum on ADB, said in a telephone interview.
“What is
more remorseful is that the bank linked energy with
economic growth when instead it should be decoupled,”
Withanage told BUSINESSMIRROR.
Furthermore, the NGO Forum head rued that ADB’s draft
strategy intends to continue funding fossil-based energy
projects but while giving token support to cleaner ones,
particularly renewable energy.
ADB
said, however, that renewable energy sources need to be
pursued since they can eventually form
a
significant component of the electricity grid to almost
10 percent to 20 percent or more than five times the
current share.
“Renewable energy is clearly an option for offgrid
community-based electricity supply. Even with backup
requirements, use of renewable energy sources will
reduce fossil-fuel consumption,” the bank said. |
