Zubair qureshi Islamabad
Fair Finance Asia (FFA) and a non-government organization (NGO) on ADB (the Forum) have released a new report titled “The Asian Development Bank’s Energy Transition Mechanism: Emerging Social, Environmental and Rights-Based Considerations” raising critical questions and concerns about the Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM), which is being advanced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The ADB had presented the report as a market-oriented solution to accelerate the process of taking coal power off the national energy grids in specific southeast, south and central Asian countries and replacing it with other sources of power.
FFA and the Forum developed this report to serve as a source of key information for groups monitoring how the ETM is being operationalized, as well as for communities living around, and working at, coal project sites selected for ETM implementation.
As ADB advances plans to pilot the ETM in Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, and later in Kazakhstan and Vietnam, the report reiterates key risks and concerns being raised by civil society, community, and workers’ organizations about the design and proposed implementation of the ETM.
Rayyan Hassan, Executive Director, NGO Forum on ADB said, “By keeping a close watch on the development of the ADB’s ETM since it was announced in 2021, civil society groups in the region are becoming increasingly concerned that the ETM is flawed by design, seemingly leaving communities and workers at the very sites.”
