The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced that it is increasing its climate financing for developing member-countries (DMCs) to $100 billion between 2019 and 2030.
This means, the Manila-based multilateral development bank said, its financing will increase to a cumulative of at least $80 billion by 2030. ADB expects the cumulative climate financing from its own resources in 2019–2021 to reach about $17 billion.
In 2018, ADB committed to ensure that 75 percent of its operations support climate action and it’s own climate finance resources.
“The battle against climate change will be won or lost in Asia and the Pacific,” said ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa in a news statement. “The climate crisis is worsening daily, prompting many to call for increased climate finance. We are taking action to meet this call by elevating our ambition to $100 billion in cumulative climate finance from our own resources by 2030.”
ADB said the additional $20 billion will provide support for the climate agenda in five main areas, namely, new climate mitigation efforts; transformative adaptation projects; private sector operations; the green recovery; and climate resilience and mitigation.
ADB added that cumulative financing for all of these, including energy storage, energy efficiency, and low-carbon transport, is expected to reach $66 billion.
The second area will be for projects in climate-sensitive sectors, such as urban, agriculture, and water, will be designed with a primary purpose of effective climate adaptation and enhanced resilience. ADB expects its cumulative adaptation finance to reach $34 billion.
Investing in private sector operations will mean creating commercially viable projects for ADB and private investors. This will help address post-pandemic recovery, which can be done through new technologies and innovations in climate financing.
ADB aims to support these initiatives with $12 billion in cumulative private sector climate finance from its own resources and anticipated crowding in of an additional $18 billion to $30 billion.
Investing in green, resilient, and inclusive recovery from Covid-19 means, for ADB, increasing its support for financing platforms such as the Asean Catalytic Green Finance Facility and Green Recovery Platform which will help the capital markets and private sector leverage funds for low-carbon infrastructure.
The last area, ADB said, means supporting reforms in DMCs to unlock actions through policy-based lending to support policies and institutions for enhanced climate resilience and climate mitigation.