On 3 November, President Masa, Indonesia Finance Minister and ADB Governor Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and the Philippines Finance Secretary and ADB Governor Carlos Dominguez launched the Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) at the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, UK. The ETM aims to decommission coal-fired power plants in Southeast Asia and replace them with renewable energy-based power generation. Once scaled up, it promises to take the equivalent of 61 million cars off the road every year, provide a scalable model for the early retirement of coal plants elsewhere in the world, and has the potential to become the largest carbon-reduction program in the world.
UK Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Helen Whately spoke on the critical role of the energy transition. The US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Denmark Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, and Japan Vice Minister of Finance Masato Kanda shared recorded messages of support for the ETM, along with UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambitions and Solutions Michael Bloomberg. ADB and its partners are currently undertaking a feasibility study in Indonesia and the Philippines.