Questioning Development Banks’ Commitments to Just Transition
Hello readers,
As the Asia Pacific Climate Week and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation gatherings get underway, expect public financial institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to showcase their plans for supporting “Just Transitions” schemes in the region. As both institutions have track records of financing coal-power projects, their proposals for supporting ‘coal-to-clean’ pathways should be intensely scrutinised.
In today’s opinion piece, Tanya Lee Roberts Davis, Just Transitions Advocacy Coordinator at NGO Forum on ADB, raises concerns about about discussions happening behind closed doors between banks, government officials and corporations in the name of Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETP). These multibillion dollar pledges from wealthy nations to countries like Vietnam and Indonesia to help them transition to clean energy solutions have been fraught with challenges. Amongst a number of concerns, human rights and the safety of CSOs and activists have remained at the top of the list with six prominent advocates of climate and energy justice having been arrested and detained in Vietnam alone. Hong Hoang, the founder of the environmental NGO CHANGE and friend of Southeast Asia Globe, profiled in these pages in 2021, is one of those six.