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Warren Evans
ADB Climate Envoy

“The climate crisis that all of us face, every country, every community across the globe, is so urgent, it is so complex, and it is so devastating, particularly in developing countries, that we have to tackle this as a community.

We need to work together and actually lay out a long-term strategy where partners each have a role, each take on that role, and collectively we can make a dent in this challenge.

We need to kind of flip this from a disaster story to an opportunity.”

The United Nations estimates the cost to avoid the worst impacts of climate change at 4.3 trillion US dollars every year until 2030. It’s an unprecedented scale of investment that clearly requires deep and committed international collaboration.

Warren Evans
ADB Climate Envoy

“The realities of the challenges, the scale, the urgency of these challenges is such that we are reaching out to think tanks, to civil society organizations, to other multilateral development banks, to the private sector, to explore how we can best work together to achieve action at scale quickly.

So we reach out to those who have the knowledge, those who have the money, and those who have the mandate to work with us to try and collectively have a greater impact on this.”

Home to about 155 million people living in extreme poverty, Asia and the Pacific is the region most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Increased incidence of extreme heat, droughts, and heavy rains are already devastating the region, and these could push millions more into poverty.

To tackle this escalating crisis, the Asian Development Bank is implementing bold solutions – including new ways of financing adaptation and mitigation across the region like the Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific (IF-CAP).

Warren Evans
ADB Climate Envoy

“ADB has just launched its climate change action plan, and that action plan lays out a whole series of investment programs that ADB will support, both for adaptation to climate change, particularly building resilience in the most vulnerable communities, but also investing in low carbon development and decarbonization. So the IF-CAP funding will be used across all aspects of climate finance.”

It’s estimated IF-CAP could generate up to fifteen billion dollars in additional lending for ADB’s projects. The lending facility could finance projects similar to current initiatives – like the greening of Nepal’s transport system through electric mobility, the strengthening of communities’ flood protection in Vietnam, or supporting Pakistan in its efforts to make agriculture more climate resilient.

Collaboration with the private sector is crucial to fighting climate change.

To invest in the energy transition, ADB is partnering with firms such as the United Arab Emirates’ renewable energy company Masdar, which is developing solar and wind energy in Central Asia, and Energy Absolute, a Thai firm pioneering the use of electric ferries in Bangkok.

With 50 percent of global greenhouse gases emitted in Asia – phasing out coal in the region is crucial to carbon reduction targets.

Through the Energy Transition Mechanism or ETM, ADB is bringing together a coalition of public and private sector partners to take on this complex task.

Warren Evans
ADB Climate Envoy

“By retiring coal-fired power plants early, if we are successful in moving this at the pace that we hope we can and mobilizing the resources that are required to do that, we will be able to help Indonesia, Philippines, several other countries to retire coal-fired power plants early and to replace that with renewable energy and ensure that there is a just transition for the communities and the laborers that are affected by this move from fossil fuels to clean energy. By doing that, we believe this will be the largest greenhouse gas emission reduction as a program that the world has seen to this date.”

ADB is also working with global climate funds bringing critical financing for much-needed climate mitigation and adaptation projects.

Mafalda Duarte
Executive Director, Green Climate Fund

“With the right finance and the right partnerships, we can achieve anything. There is room to grow. We can do even more together to support the aspirations of developing nations through bold country-led programs that move from one off projects to systems changing programs and by removing barriers to investment in higher risk, high reward initiatives. Partnership is the bedrock of climate action. We need all hands on deck to deliver the change we need.”

Multilateral development banks are collaborating to step up climate action. Climate finance from MDBs reached a record high last year.

But more needs to be done.

As temperatures continue to rise, the impact of extreme heat on economies, development, and health will escalate – and while it will affect everyone, the burden of heat stress will fall heavily on women.

Reducing the risk and strengthening women’s resilience is essential. ADB will work with key partners, including women’s organizations, to develop innovative solutions.

Warren Evans
ADB Climate Envoy

“Gender is one of our highest priorities as a development objective to get better equity, better opportunities for women in particular, but also recognizing their vulnerabilities. So the Gender and Heat initiative will allow us to, we believe, save hundreds of thousands of lives and reduce the impacts of heat on productivity, on economic losses and so on. We are a development bank and this is a development issue. We have to put this at the forefront of what we do.”

“While the cost of inaction is incalculable, climate action could bring in revenues of more than four trillion US dollars for Asia-based businesses, according to the World Economic Forum.”

And more than half of the world’s jobs would be in the region.

Warren Evans
ADB Climate Envoy

“Moving to a decarbonized world not only is critical for saving lives and reducing the risks to highly vulnerable communities across the region. But it’s an opportunity. We’ve learned from other countries that the process of moving to a low carbon economy presents countries with the opportunity fo new manufacturing, for lots of jobs, good paying jobs.”

We believe that this is an opportunity. It is a disaster. And we have to deal with it as such. But we need to also look at how we use our actions on climate change to build economies. And we believe that there are tremendous opportunities across Asia and the Pacific to do that.

With the enormous scale of the climate challenge, ADB is forging ahead in the region that needs the most urgent action. Partnering along this journey is critical to ensure that no one is left behind.