Faltering climate leadership from the United States has thrust other global powers under a steady spotlight, including in Asia, where the stakes grow higher each year as global temperatures continue to rise.
As billions of people swelter and suffer under record-breaking heat waves in Central and South Asia, the US looks the other way and carries out orders to dismantle existing climate commitments. As if taking their cue, big banks jump ship on net-zero claims.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) appears not to have joined this bandwagon–at least on paper. At this month’s ADB Annual Meeting, there were encouraging signs: a commitment to allocate 50% of annual lending to climate finance by 2030 and a goal to mobilize US$13 billion for private sector climate projects.
But behind these pledges lies a more complex—and troubling—reality. Despite its climate rhetoric, ADB continues to fund natural gas projects, describing them as part of the transition. But science tells us otherwise.
New research has found that LNG’s emissions exceed those of coal by 33% when processing and transportation impacts are taken into account. If we’re serious about staying below 1.5°C, we simply can’t afford to lock countries into decades of gas infrastructure. Methane leaks from gas projects pose a major climate risk, while the economic costs of stranded assets threaten long-term development goals.
In places like the Philippines and Bangladesh, ADB-financed gas projects have faced criticism for displacing communities, exacerbating inequality, and entrenching reliance on fossil imports.
That’s why affected communities and civil society organizations have spoken out clearly, using the ADB’s Annual Meeting in Milan as an opportunity to call on the bank to fully divest from all fossil fuels, not just coal.
They also criticized the billions of dollars being funneled into so-called climate “solutions” like carbon capture and storage, hydropower megaprojects, incinerators branded as waste-to-energy, industrial biofuels, and hydrogen. These are not bridges to a cleaner future—they’re detours that delay real action.
In Nepal and India, for instance, large hydropower dams financed with ADB’s development aid have triggered environmental damage and violated Indigenous rights.
What is needed instead is a new vision, one that’s rooted in justice. As a major development financier, the ADB can anchor Asia’s just energy transition so that it truly protects and allows Asia’s most climate-vulnerable populations to thrive.
To achieve this, it must shift away from corporate-led energy development and invest in community-owned microgrids, renewable cooperatives, and locally driven climate adaptation efforts.
It must ensure free, prior and informed consent for all affected communities. It must offer grants—not loans—to prevent compounding debt burdens in countries already under economic strain.
Across Asia, communities are already reimagining the future and showing what’s possible today. From solar microgrids in remote islands of Indonesia to wind-powered cooperatives in rural Japan, grassroots energy initiatives are providing clean, affordable, and democratic alternatives.
In the Philippines, solar-powered resilient energy hubs are being developed in off-grid communities, while youth are driving the push for renewable energy and clean air in urban neighborhoods.
In Bangladesh, community solar initiatives and women-led energy enterprises are proving that inclusive models can thrive even in resource-constrained settings.
In June, the Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) in Manila will bring together government officials, private sector leaders, development partners, and other stakeholders to discuss clean energy development and investment opportunities across the Asia-Pacific region.
Organized annually by the ADB, it offers Asia’s self-proclaimed “Climate Bank” another chance to demonstrate real climate leadership. It’s not enough to increase climate lending. That lending must be shaped by equity, not dictated by markets. It’s not enough to court private capital.
That capital must be harnessed for the public good. And it’s certainly not enough to label projects “green” while continuing to back the industries causing the crisis.
Asia’s climate movement has laid the groundwork by exposing greenwash and demanding accountability. Now, the spotlight turns to commitments that will be made at the ACEF, as well as the ADB’s upcoming review of its Energy Policy.
The decisions made in the coming months will define the air we breathe, the lands we protect and the futures our communities inherit. A fossil-free, community-powered Asia isn’t just an ideal—it’s an urgent necessity. But does the ADB have the courage to make it real?
Chuck Baclagon is the Asia Regional Finance Campaigner for 350.org, a global grassroots movement dedicated to ending the age of fossil fuels and building a world of community-led renewable energy for all. Based in the Philippines, he has spent two decades in environmental and social justice advocacy.
