The 14th Annual Consultation Meeting (ACM) for the Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility (CEFPF) was held on 17 November 2021. The Chief of Energy Sector Group Priyantha Wijayatunga welcomed representatives from the Governments of Australia, Japan, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. ADB informed the partners on the progress and achievements of the CEFPF, update on the ADB Clean Energy Investment Program and the approval of the 2021 Energy Policy.

On 28 April, the Asian Development Outlook 2021 was released. The report stresses the importance of green and social finance in ensuring inclusive, resilient and sustainable recovery for Asia and the Pacific Region from the coronavirus pandemic.ADO 2021 outlined the role of different players in this green recovery building on the momentum already started by green and social finance in recent years particularly in the private sector. Changing investor preferences toward sustainable development goals has played a big role.

Building on the momentum and success from the first inaugural equity fund, ADB Ventures is setting up a second investment fund to address ongoing market financing gaps to support early-stage and growth companies in scaling up their operations. According to the ADB Ventures newsletter, the new fund will offer debt-based products to enhance the operations of climate-focused companies.ADB Ventures is currently raising funds and aims to achieve its first close by 2022.

President Masa on 13 October announced the increase in ADB climate finance target from $80 billion to $100 billion from 2019 to 2030. About $17 billion in climate finance is expected to be registered for 2019 to 2021.The additional $20 billion will provide support for the climate agenda in five main areas:1. First, new avenues for climate mitigation, including energy storage, energy efficiency, and low-carbon transport. ADB expects its cumulative climate mitigation finance to reach $66 billion.2. Second, a scale-up of transformative adaptation projects.

Major multilateral development banks including ADB committed $66 billion in 2020 from $61 billion in 2019. Around $38 billion (58% ) has been committed for low to middle-income countries. This is according to the 2020 Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance published on 30 June 2021.

An external evaluation of the performance of the Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility (CEFPF) will be conducted in 2022 as requested by the financing partners. The external evaluation will assess how effective CEFPF is in helping ADB achieve its clean energy goals, while also meeting financing partner expectations.

On 30 September 2021, the Climate Change Steering Committee authorized the allocation of $2.5 million in funding support from the Canadian Climate Fund to the Private Sector in Asia (CFPS) and the Carbon Capture and Storage Fund (CCSF) under the Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility (CEFPF) to two technical assistance (TA) projects: 

The Artificial Intelligence and Digitalization Innovation Fund (AIDIF) is the latest trust fund to be established under the Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility (CEFPF). The AIDIF aims to develop clean energy technologies utilizing innovative and promising artificial intelligence and digital technologies that are close to commercialization and help mitigate adverse effects of climate change and wider development benefits.

Energy efficiency remains a tricky matter to harness, notwithstanding its vast potential. This ADBI Working Paper examines off-balance sheet equity as one of the options that could be tapped to effectively mobilize energy efficiency financing.

This ADBI working paper proposes several policy recommendations to modify existing guidelines for selecting ESCOs to manage the energy efficiency of streetlights in Indonesia. It specifically proposes the use of smart street lighting technologies to improve the value-added services of streetlights and the establishment of a super ESCO to accelerate ESCO business activity in all economic sectors.