With ADB’s Energy Policy Review underway, civil society groups are demanding that the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) take real steps toward a genuine transition.
They outlined six core demands:
- Transparent review process: Full access to draft policies and participation from affected communities.
- Uphold climate imperatives: Adhere strictly to the 1.5°C objective and reject loopholes under the Paris Alignment framework.
- Close ETM loopholes: Exclude coal proponents, demand reparations, and ensure justice for affected communities.
- Phase out fossil gas: Implement a time-bound and strategic exit plan.
- Reject False Solutions: End support for mega-geothermal, incinerators, and other risky technologies.
- Reject extractivism and nuclear energy: Halt mining-linked projects and exclude nuclear power.
Civil society organizations have criticized the Bank’s energy policies, warning that its clean energy agenda is riddled with loopholes and “false solutions” that only worsen the climate crisis.
While ADB officials convened the Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) to discuss pathways to a greener future, civil society groups
They also raised alarm over what they called the bank’s dangerous commitment to fossil fuels and extractive industries.
Central to their criticism was the ADB’s much-publicized Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM), which groups argue is being used to funnel public funds to coal companies rather than responsibly retire dirty power plants.
“Instead of shutting down coal responsibly, the ETM is bailing out polluters under the guise of climate action,” the Forum network said.
The groups also called out ADB’s inclusion of Standard Chartered and OceanaGold in ACEF discussions, noting both entities’ controversial records involving environmental degradation and human rights violations in the Philippines and other countries.
Maya Quirino, Associate Executive Director and Advocacy Coordinator of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center, warned against the bank’s promotion of “climate-smart mining.”
She cited the case of Indigenous communities in Nueva Vizcaya affected by the OceanaGold mining project, which has been accused of environmental destruction and community displacement.
“Mining comes with a hefty environmental and social price tag,” Quirino said.
She cautioned that countries in the Global South should not be pressured to open up lands for mining in the name of an energy transition.
“It would be the supreme irony if, in trying to address the climate crisis, the world escalates mining — an industry long linked to environmental degradation and human rights violations,” she added.
The Forum’s statement went further, condemning ADB’s continued funding of fossil gas pipelines, mega-geothermal projects, and waste-to-energy incinerators, all of which they argue deepen debt, harm frontline communities, and delay the real energy transition Asia urgently needs.
NGO Forum on ADB and its allies reiterated their call for a just energy transition that prioritizes decentralized, community-owned, and regenerative energy systems.
“Anything less makes the ADB complicit in deepening the very crisis it claims to solve,” they said.
