ADB, IEA To Scale Up Collaboration in Energy Systems

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) are discussing scaling up collaboration and renewing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two organisations.

ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa Asakawa said there is great synergy between the analytical capabilities of IEA and ADB's on-the-ground knowledge in Asia.

"The energy sector is an important part of the post-COVID-19 pandemic stimulus packages for our developing members and we look forward to future collaboration with IEA in this vital area," he said.

The two leaders are discussing areas of potential collaboration, including how to boost the resilience of energy systems in Asia and the Pacific to better cope with extreme weather as a result of climate change or pandemic-induced supply interruptions, and the use of new technologies such as green hydrogen.

ADB first signed the MOU with IEA in March 2017 to facilitate knowledge and analytical work to advance clean energy development in ADB's developing member countries. As part of this, ADB worked with IEA to study power system flexibility in India to integrate more solar and wind energy in the grids.

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol will deliver the keynote speech at Asia Clean Energy Forum 2020 (ACEF) co-hosted by ADB, the United States Agency for International Development and the South Korea Energy Agency, which takes place from June 15 to 19. The IEA is a knowledge partner of ACEF.

ADB invested more than 23 billion dollars in clean energy from 2008 to 2019. Last year, ADB's climate financing reached a record 6.56 billion dollars, meeting its target of doubling its annual climate investments from 2014 -- one year ahead of schedule.

Under Strategy 2030, ADB is targeting 80 billion dollars in cumulative climate financing from its own resources by 2030 and for at least 75 per cent of its country operations to feature climate adaptation and mitigation initiatives.