9 June 2016

On Wednesday morning, ACEF 2016 formally started with a series of welcoming remarks and keynote addresses from the ADB, its partners, and pre-eminent thinkers in the clean energy world.

ADB Director General for Sustainable Development and Climate Change Carmela Locsin introduced ADB President Takehiko Nakao, who gave an overview of the progress made by the international community in promoting clean energy, as well as the challenges that remain to be overcome. President Nakao was followed by United States Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg then welcomed ACEF participants and highlighted the pioneering role the Asia-Pacific region has to play in shaping the world’s clean energy future.

To conclude the first session of the opening plenary, Rachel Kyte, CEO of the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative and Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, gave an inspirational keynote address and made a call to arms for the clean energy community in Asia, “We are ready for an extraordinary new era of clean energy. The industrial revolution started in Europe, but the future of clean energy is in Asia,” said Kyte.

Invoking a tangible and accessible image of a resilient future for clean energy in Asia and its impact on improving the lives of the poorest communities. Ms. Kyte invited ACEF participants to imagine a 2024 where Pacific islanders, urban residents, and rural villagers were all able to take advantage of clean, affordable energy and related technologies. She reiterated the priorities for making that future a reality:

Ms. Kyte called for an extraordinary new era of action that will turn the promise of technological revolution into a clean energy transformation.

In the second half of the opening plenary, Tae Young Kim of the Korea Energy Agency welcomed participants and talked about KEA’s ongoing partnership with ADB and ACEF. Makoto Watanabe, Executive Director of NEDO, gave an overview of his organization’s clean technology R&D projects throughout the Asia-Pacific region, which are proving the potential for GHG emissions reductions and improved energy efficiency in a variety of sectors and applications. Barbara Kreissler from Philips Lighting spoke on the need to take aggressive action now in the area of energy efficiency, highlighting Philips’ success deploying efficient lighting to cut energy costs and promote new jobs. Finally, Bartosz Wojszczyk, President and CEO of Decision Point Global, presented a new approach to innovation within the clean technology sector. His firm is developing new, potentially disruptive technologies, like wireless power transfer, spray on nano solar materials, and thermionic cells for power generation.

ACEF Chair Priyantha Wijayatunga welcomed participants and called on practitioners to rise to the challenge of building a sustainable clean energy future for all.

“ACEF has become the leading knowledge exchange platform and has evolved into a living laboratory for clean energy. This forum’s transformation reflects extraordinary expansion in clean energy. For the first time, emerging economies invested more in renewable energy than developed countries in 2015.”

“We should reduce fossil fuel subsidies, which encourage the overuse of energy and distort the market by making fossil fuels cheaper. Asia accounts for half of global fossil fuel subsidies. Eliminating them will promote cleaner energy, protect local environments, and reduce the carbon footprint."

“ADB is scaling up its operations in clean energy. Last September, we announced that we will double our annual climate financing to $6 billion by 2020. Of this, $4 billion will support mitigation and $2 billion will be for adaptation. Out of the $4 billion for mitigation, $3 billion annually will go to clean energy projects on renewable energy and energy efficiency, such as solar and wind, and transmission projects with smart grid technology. Another $1 billion will be used on sustainable transport and mitigation efforts in the urban and water sectors.”

“Those in the Philippines know too well the risks of climate disruption and weather extremes, as the devastation of Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, which killed more than 6,000 people and left more than 1,000 missing, is fresh in many memories.”

“Support for LEDS globally has led to mobilization of more than $640 million of clean energy investment and related mitigation measures, and more than 1.5 GW of planned and installed renewable energy capacity.”

“ACEF has grown up a lot in the past decade.  The first ACEF was held in June 2006 and had 75 participants.  ACEF in 2016 has more than 1,500 participants from 64 countries, with 18 deep dive workshops and technical seminars, 24 parallel sessions and more than 270 speakers throughout the week.”

Tae-Young Kim, Vice President of the Korea Energy Agency, welcomed speakers for Part 2 of the Opening Plenary and gave an overview of the challenges facing the energy community in accelerating the deployment of clean energy.

“We stand at the edge of a revolution, in which the EE light bulb will be at the center of the internet of things.”

“By doubling annual EE improvement rate from 1.5-3%, we can slash the global energy bill by more than 2 trillion Euros by 2030 and save 1/3 of household energy bills, and create more than 6 million jobs by 2020.”

Session Moderator Peter du Pont thanked Mayang for the statement and committed to include a summary of her statement in the daily ACEF newsletter, The ACEF Daily Broadcast. The following is a direct quote from their Statement on ADB:

“The ADB claims that its own financing for clean energy rose to $2.4 billion last year from only about $280 million in 2005. This might seem a positive trend but evidence shows that ADB’s average energy lending for off-grid and mini-grid renewable energy is only at 7.5 % of its total energy portfolio. Bulk of taxpayers’ money goes to false solutions to the problem of accessible and ‘clean’ electricity such as energy efficiency, clean coal which are still powered by coal—the largest contributor to climate change.

“With the region’s vast resource endowments, the NGO Forum on ADB strongly believes that renewable energy can and has to be the core driver for all future energy investments by ADB to achieve its commitment to poverty eradication and sustainable development. As we denounce ADB’s investments in fossil fuels; we also do not endorse the notion of large hydropower as ‘clean energy’ or ‘climate adaptive’ source of renewable energy which forms a significant part of the Bank’s energy lending portfolio.

“We also criticize poor standards in labelling environmentally-enhancing projects across all funding facilities for “clean” and “green” projects. Thus, despite the proliferation of “green” financing instruments and windows, ADB energy projects still destroy peoples’ lives and the planet.”

In response to this, Dan Millison, who is Manager of Transcendergy LLC and a former staff member of ADB, provided his input on ADB’s energy portfolio. Having recently conducted an evaluation of ADB’s energy portfolio for ADB’s Independent Evaluation Department (IED), Dan noted that ADB’s investment in non-renewable energy has decelerated over the past decade, as investment in clean energy has increased. The following is a statement submitted by Mr. Millison to The ACEF Daily Broadcast shortly after the interchange.

“Concerning Coal: From 2000-2015, ADB's Board of Directors approved financing for 10 coal-fired power projects; 3 of these were approved in 2008, and only 2 have been approved since 2010. Of this total, it seems that 2 of these projects were non-sovereign operations that did not reach financial closure. Total financing was about 3.1 billion for the 8 projects that reached closure.

“Concerning Hydro Power: From 2002 - 2015, ADB's Board approved financing for 16 hydropower projects. This includes 1 pumped storage project, which was a retrofit of an existing facility. From 2002 - 2015, ADB's Board approved financing for 16 hydropower projects. This includes 1 pumped storage project, which was a retrofit of an existing facility.
“In Summation: The overall trend is that ADB financing for clean energy has increased significantly compared to the coal and large hydro (which is about $5 Billion spread over 15 years, or about $333 Million per year).”

[Editor’s note: Mr. Millison noted that the above numbers and statements do not officially express the views or records of ADB. He also noted that evaluation has not yet been published].

This faced paced networking session brought together more than 150 participants. The session was a lively discussion on startups, best practice case studies, civil society initiatives, and new clean tech company products.  Presenters exchanged ideas with participants on how to hone business plans, improve services, and increase access to financing.

This plenary session will be an interactive dialogue between various government agencies and ministries in charge of climate change, from both developed and developing countries as well as representatives from international organizations including the ADB. The speakers will identify the gaps and barriers that stand in the way of countries successfully achieving NDCs, along with opportunities to (1) develop synergies, (2) strengthen cooperation to leverage the political momentum gained in 2015, and (3) capitalize on “early wins” to ensure the greatest impact.
Key questions include:

For more information and updates on ACEF 2016, go to our website at:
www.asiacleanenergyforum.org