Background  An increasing number of governments and businesses are announcing that they are ‘going green'. This gives us optimism that the growing preference for energy efficiency and renewable energy will help accelerate the region's clean energy transition.

ADB’s Developing Member Countries (DMCs) in South Asia, other regions, are now witnessing a paradigm shift in the power distribution sector, which is being driven by increased viability of distributed Renewable Energy (RE) sources, plans for proliferation of new electricity loads like Electric Vehicles (EVs) and increasing consumer centricity of utilities driven by enablement of two-way power flows.

Background  In the past decade, the green bond (or more generally the concept of green financing) market has emerged and grown. It gave the investors the opportunity to align their pursuit for financial returns with their pursuit for environmental benefit by ascertaining that the investment proceeds get channeled through to green assets – e.g. clean energy assets.

As the Pacific developing member countries (DMCs) battle multiple development challenges, progress is hampered by a significant obstruction – access to clean, reliable and affordable energy. In the Pacific region, where electricity supply remains dominated by diesel-based generation, all nations are struggling to meet their own energy security objectives, as well as their Paris Agreement commitments and Nationally Determined Contributions.

Several countries have reached peak GHG emissions levels and many more have a commitment to a peak in emissions in the future. By 2030, countries representing at least 60% of global emissions are committed to reach their respective peaks. The People’s Republic of China recently announced that they will achieve a peak in emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, while Fiji, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Marshall Islands, and Timor-Leste have joined the Carbon Neutrality Coalition.

Central Asian countries have abundant energy resources that are unevenly distributed. Some countries are rich with fossil fuels, while others have substantial hydro resources. One thing that all these countries have in common is substantial renewable energy potential that can play a significant role in decarbonizing the region.