COP26: ADB plan to phase out coal plants is ‘blah, blah, blah’, warn climate change activists as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth write open letter
- More than 60 civil society organisations have written an open letter opposing an initiative involving the Asian Development Bank, Prudential, Citi and BlackRock that would buy up coal plants and retire them early
- The groups say the scheme is poorly thought out and risks encouraging both greenwashing and the continued operation of older coal plants. But the ADB defends the plan as a key part of its ‘bold action’ to fight climate change
More than 60 civil society organisations (CSOs) have written an open letter citing pressing concerns about an Asian Development Bank initiative, to be detailed at the COP26 summit on Wednesday, to phase out coal plants.
On paper, the proposal seems straightforward: the ADB and financial partners including Prudential, Citi and BlackRock Real Assets plan to buy coal power plants across Asia and retire them within 15 years, sooner than their usual shelf life. At the same time, they would fund greener alternatives.
More details of the project, named the Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM), are expected to be released at the Glasgow summit at an event attended by leaders including Indonesia’s Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
Despite efforts to phase out coal, the use of the dirty fuel in the Asia-Pacific region accounts for about three-quarters of worldwide coal consumption.
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