The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is changing its lending strategies to reflect the challenge of climate change and sustainable development. Last year, ADB set ambitious targets for investments that respond to climate change, and pledged to double its annual financing for mitigation and adaptation projects to USD 6 billion by 2020. Of this amount, USD 4 billion will be allocated to mitigation projects, including renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable transport initiatives and smart cities. By the end of 2015, the bank had already taken major steps towards meeting its goal, investing a record USD 2.47 billion in clean energy.
2015 was also the first time that ADB’s investments in energy efficiency surpassed its investments in renewables, reversing the ratio that had stood since the bank’s energy policy was launched in 2009. A large portion of these energy efficiency investments were devoted to supply-side solutions. According to ADB, supply-side interventions offer significant opportunities to save on energy and costs, and to construct “future-proof” infrastructure. The combined projects are expected save 4.4 terawatt hours of electricity, or six times the savings of the bank’s energy efficiency projects in 2014.
For an overview of the bank’s investments in clean energy in 2015, please click on the link to download ADB’s 2015 Clean Energy Investments Project Summaries.