ADB President, Executive Director of IEA Discuss Scaling Up Collaboration

Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masatsugu Asakawa and Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol held a videoconference today to discuss scaling up collaboration and renewing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two organizations.

“We appreciate the collaboration with the IEA in recent years,” said Mr. Asakawa. “There is great synergy between the analytical capabilities of the IEA and ADB’s ‘on the ground’ knowledge in Asia. The energy sector is an important part of the post-COVID-19 pandemic stimulus packages for our developing members and we look forward to future collaboration with IEA in this vital area.”

The two leaders discussed areas of potential collaboration, including how to boost the resilience of energy systems in Asia and the Pacific to better cope with extreme weather as a result of climate change or pandemic-induced supply interruptions, and the use of new technologies such as green hydrogen.

ADB first signed the MOU with IEA in March 2017 to facilitate knowledge and analytical work to advance clean energy development in ADB’s developing member countries. As part of this, ADB worked with IEA to study power system flexibility in India to integrate more solar and wind energy in the grids.

Mr. Birol will deliver the keynote speech at the Asia Clean Energy Forum 2020 (ACEF), co-hosted by ADB, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Korea Energy Agency, which takes place from 15–19 June. The IEA is a knowledge partner of ACEF.

ADB invested more than $23 billion in clean energy from 2008 to 2019. Last year, ADB’s climate financing reached a record $6.56 billion, meeting its target of doubling its annual climate investments from 2014—one year ahead of schedule.

Under Strategy 2030, ADB is targeting $80 billion in cumulative climate financing from its own resources by 2030 and for at least 75% of its country operations to feature climate adaptation and mitigation initiatives.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.