April 2, 2026
“The fact that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing funds to deliver emergency aid to countries affected by the oil and gas price shock clearly shows once again: We urgently need a just renewable energy transition,” says Merete Looft, campaigner on multilateral financial institutions at Urgewald, Germany. “It is important to provide relief to communities in distress. But dependence on fossil fuels from authoritarian and belligerent countries must not redirect scarce development resources into the coffers of fossil fuel corporations. Instead, our taxpayer money should be combating energy poverty in a meaningful, sustainable, and long-term way.”
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced yesterday that it would provide additional funds for countries in Asia affected by the global oil market shock. ADB projects are financed by its member countries. Germany is the largest European shareholder and the sixth-largest overall. The ADB pursues the self-defined goal of using these funds to promote inclusive and sustainable growth in Asia and the Pacific.
"The government of Bangladesh is struggling to maintain petroleum, especially diesel, and LNG supplies for the transport and industrial sectors, while civil society demands a rapid transition to renewables, especially rooftop solar, which could be installed at a rapid pace," adds Hasan Mehedi, Chief Executive of Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network (CLEAN), Bangladesh. "The ADB loan will create a carbon lock-in in Bangladesh and trap the country under additional debt. ADB should rather support the deployment of EV buses and decentralized renewable energy."
Merete Looft
Energy Campaigner in the Multilateral Financial Institutions Team
merete.looft@urgewald.org
Dr. Ognyan Seizov
International Communications Director
ognyan.seizov@urgewald.org
+49 (0)30 863 2922-61