It’s high time for ADB to quit financing dirty energy
Photo of Tata Mundra Ultra Mega Coal plant in India by Sami Siva / ICIJ via Flickr
Despite its avowed support for clean energy transition and sustainable development in the region, ADB continues to reinforce Asian economies’ dependence on fossil fuels, posing significant threats to the environment, the climate, and peoples’ rights.
As the Asian Development Bank conducts its virtual Annual Governors’ Meeting on September 17 to 18, IBON International along with other civil society and peoples’ organisations in the region is holding the Bank to account for its lingering legacy of financing dirty energy in Asia Pacific. Despite its avowed support for clean energy transition and sustainable development in the region, the Bank’s institutional policies and lending portfolios continue to reinforce Asian economies’ dependence on fossil fuels, posing significant threats to the environment, the climate, and peoples’ rights.
Strengthening Southern People’s Power for Climate Justice and System Change
The global COVID-19 pandemic has put on hold urgent climate change discussions that were supposed to take place this year. The combined impacts of the global pandemic and climate change are putting a strain on the resources and capacities of Southern countries that are already reeling from the impacts of global warming and decades of neoliberal globalization.
The underlying economic and social conditions that have made Southern countries especially vulnerable to global pandemics are the same ones that have compromised our biodiversity and put human societies in contact with novel diseases like COVID-19. The pandemic further emphasizes the need to continue the advocacy on climate change to raise ambition and to confront the challenge of system change. Civil society and peoples’ movements need to continue the discussions and building of networks to ensure that they can effectively engage in shaping public policy on climate change and sustainable development given how the so-called “new normal” regime is aggravating closing civic spaces in many countries.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has put on hold urgent climate change discussions that were supposed to take place this year. The combined impacts of the global pandemic and climate change are putting a strain on the resources and capacities of Southern countries that are already reeling from the impacts of global warming and decades of neoliberal globalization.
The underlying economic and social conditions that have made Southern countries especially vulnerable to global pandemics are the same ones that have compromised our biodiversity and put human societies in contact with novel diseases like COVID-19. The pandemic further emphasizes the need to continue the advocacy on climate change to raise ambition and to confront the challenge of system change. Civil society and peoples’ movements need to continue the discussions and building of networks to ensure that they can effectively engage in shaping public policy on climate change and sustainable development given how the so-called “new normal” regime is aggravating closing civic spaces in many countries.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has put on hold urgent climate change discussions that were supposed to take place this year. The combined impacts of the global pandemic and climate change are putting a strain on the resources and capacities of Southern countries that are already reeling from the impacts of global warming and decades of neoliberal globalization.