The ADB Board approved on 24 November the $600 million results-based loan to help the country’s state-owned power company, State Electricity Corporation (PLN) expand electricity access and promote renewable energy in eastern Indonesia. The RBL also includes two grants, at $3 million each, from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction and the Asia Clean Energy Fund.

Joonho Hwang goes back to where it all started, this time to lead the division and continue the legacies built in years’ past. Upon assumption of office, Joonho will leave the Cambodia Resident Mission where he has been its Principal Portfolio Management specialist since 2018. Joonho holds a Doctorate in Civil Engineering and a Masters’ degree in Engineering Geology from Purdue University, United States.

On 27 November, the South Tarawa Renewable Energy Project in Kiribati was approved with funding $14.7 million from ADB’s Asian Development Fund, Strategic Climate Fund, and New Zealand. The project which is ADB’s first foray into the country’s energy sector aims to reduce the dominance of fossil fuel in its energy mix and increase the share of renewables. It will install climate-resilient solar photovoltaic, battery energy storage, and modern control systems.

On 27 August, the MOU that seals the continued collaboration between ADB and SE4All was signed. The Agreement sets forth the framework of this collaboration in the areas of energy access, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and climate change. In particular, ADB and SE4All will work together in:

On 6 August, IED circulated the Sector-Wide Evaluation of the Energy Policy and Program 2009-2019 to the Board. Among the findings of the evaluation, energy sector projects from 2009 to 2019 were found to be 81% successful on average – which is greater than the ADB average of 65%. Sovereign operations in the sector, while rated highly relevant were drawn back in terms of efficiency because of implementation delays.

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.

Initial numbers show total lending approved in the energy sector in 2020 reached $4.2 billion, up by 73% from 2019 volume of $2.41 billion.  Climate finance maintains its 50% share to total lending. Climate finance in the energy sector is estimated to have reached $2.3 billion consisting of about $2.2 billion for mitigation and around $101 million for adaptation.

President Masa on 23 July appointed Priyantha Wijayatunga, as the new Energy Committee Chait following Ashok Bhargava’s retirement in June. Priyantha is currently Director of the Energy Division, South Asia Department (SAEN), a position he assumed in 2017.

At what has become an annual briefing with the ADB President, on behalf of the Energy Committee, Chief of Energy Sector Group Yongping Zhai made a presentation to President Masatsugu Asakawa on 29 May 2020. Yongping started with a brief overview of the shape of things to come in energy: the progress made, and the remaining challenges and opportunities that are being presented both by global and regional trends.

Energy sector lending for the year looks to surpass investments done in 2019 by a billion dollars with the additional three projects approved in recent days. The ADB Board approved on 3 December a loan of $150 million for the Air Quality Improvement of the Greater Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) Region. This is the 6th intervention that ADB provided for the curtailment air pollution in this region in the People’s Republic of China.