Asian Development Bank To Double Climate Finance To $6 Billion A Year By 2020
The Asian Development Bank will significantly increase lending support for projects aimed at climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced that it would increase annual climate finance lending to $6 billion by 2020, from its current $3 billion annually. The bank also aims to increase climate-linked lending to represent 30% of the overall financing.
The bank plans to support both mitigation as well as adaptation projects. Two-thirds of the annual funding, or $4 billion, will be earmarked to finance renewable energy, energy efficiency, and clean transportation projects. A third of the funding, around $2 billion, will be dedicated to climate-smart agriculture and better preparation for climate-related disasters.
Demand for climate finance is expected to increase significantly over the next few years, especially since developing countries will look to make their contribution to slow the growth in greenhouse gas emissions. Several Asian countries have proposed medium and long-term measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, emissions intensity, increase renewable energy capacity, and improve energy efficiency, as part of the proposals for the new global climate change treaty.
However, almost of these measures will require financial as well as technical assistance from developed countries, as well global development banks, including the ADB. While developed countries have pledged $100 billion per year in financial assistance through the Green Climate Fund by 2020, doubts over the deliverability of this promise remain, meaning it is the development banks that have taken the initiative to increase climate funding.
Since 2011, ADB has spent close to $13 billion on climate change. In 2014, 77% of the ADB’s $3.2 billion in spending was on mitigation, notably on promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable transport. The rest was invested in helping the region to adapt through measures such as strengthening coastal protection against floods, making infrastructure climate-resilient, and boosting disaster preparedness.
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