As the Asian Development Bank (ADB) celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF), civil society organizations took to the streets to denounce what they called two decades of greenwashing and dangerous backsliding on fossil fuels.
Civil society groups staged a protest outside the Asian Development Bank (ADB) headquarters on the opening day of the Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF), slamming the bank for failing to deliver on its clean energy promises even as the event marked its 20th year.
Rayyan Hassan, Executive Director of the NGO Forum on ADB, criticized the bank’s continued support for harmful energy projects.
“In an unstable world, a multilateral development bank like the ADB has a responsibility to offer solutions rooted in partnership and sustainability — especially in the energy sector,” Hassan said.
“But instead of transitioning Asia toward a just renewable energy system, the ADB continues to create markets for fossil gas, large hydro, incinerators, and even some geothermal plants that carry destructive impacts,” he added.
Hassan also warned against the ADB’s openness to controversial ventures like critical minerals mining and nuclear power, which he said add further risks to people and the environment.
“The bank should not gamble with people’s lives and the environment in pursuit of profit,” he said, calling for accountability and responsible decision-making. “We hope reason prevails in this ACEF.”
The NGO Forum and its allies strongly condemned the ACEF for what they described as legitimizing polluters and false climate solutions.
Activists pointed to the participation of the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), one of the world’s largest coal operators and a backer of the controversial Naga coal plant in the Philippines — financed by the ADB — as evidence that ACEF has become a “platform for polluters.”
“This only proves that ADB has no credibility in the clean energy agenda,” said Ellenor Bartolome, Senior Executive Officer for Policy, Campaigns, and Communications of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice.
“The presence of big climate polluters like KEPCO exposes how just transition is syndicated by the very actors driving the crisis,” she said.
Bartolome stressed that in a period of climate emergency, there is no room for business-as-usual. “We must reject these detours, distractions, and dangers — and demand a real, just transition for the people and the planet,” she said.
The groups vowed to continue challenging the ADB’s energy strategy and warned that mere rhetoric on energy transition will no longer satisfy growing public demand for urgent climate action.
