On World Environment Day, climate justice and clean energy advocates across Asia held a creative protests and solidarity action in front of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) building in Ortigas, Mandaluyong City, for their continued support for fossil fuels and market-driven climate schemes and call on the region’s top energy funder to choose real, community-driven climate solutions. The action highlighted people-powered climate solutions combining jazz music, symbolic imageries of a giant globe, fireflies, and sunflowers as representations of biodiversity, and renewable energy, to visualize a just energy transition rooted in community power. PHOTO LEO M. SABANGAN II.
On World Environment Day, climate justice and clean energy advocates across Asia held creative protests and solidarity actions to challenge the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s continued support for fossil fuels and market-driven climate schemes and call on the region’s top energy funder to choose real, community-driven climate solutions.
Carrying a giant globe with community-built renewable energy structures, 350 Pilipinas led a creative action in front of the ADB’s headquarters in Mandaluyong City, Philippines where the Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) is being held. Dancing and chanting to jazz music, the advocates called for a just energy transition grounded in ecological integrity, Indigenous wisdom, and energy democracy. Dressed as fireflies, they drew attention to these insects as indicator species—living signals of ecosystem health whose fading presence warns of deeper ecological harm.
Each year, the ADB gathers government leaders, the private sector, and other stakeholders in the ACEF to advance clean energy across the region. However, civil society has long criticized the ACEF for being dominated by private sector interests and corporate-driven decarbonization models that marginalize frontline communities and grassroots innovations.
Chuck Baclagon, 350.org Asia Regional Finance Campaigner says:
“As the ADB hosts ACEF to talk about clean energy, we’re here to call their bluff. You can’t solve a crisis by throwing lifelines to the industries that caused it. Fossil gas, carbon markets, and geoengineering are just repackaged and dangerous licenses to pollute. . We don’t need delay disguised as innovation, but real public investment in energy systems led by communities, not corporations. Communities across Asia are actively building viable alternatives—from solar microgrids to cooperative energy projects that empower people directly. The ADB must redirect its investments toward these climate solutions centered on people and ecological integrity, not profit.”
Fread De Mesa, 350 Pilipinas National Coordinator says:
“Our action is both protest and proposition. We reject the ADB’s half-hearted response to the urgency of the climate crisis and demand real support for regenerative, distributed energy systems. We need solutions that restore ecosystems, uphold human rights, and put the most affected communities at the center of the transition.”
While the ADB has made climate commitments and supports some clean energy initiatives, its continued financing of fossil fuel infrastructure—particularly fossil gas—under the banner of “transition” or “bridge” fuels falls short of what the climate crisis demands. Recognizing the economic and development challenges faced by many Asian countries, the ADB often favors large-scale energy mega-projects that can spur growth but frequently displace communities and harm ecosystems. Meanwhile, smaller, community-led renewable energy solutions that build true climate resilience are often overlooked and underfunded.
Advocates stress that the Bank must urgently phase out all fossil fuel financing; significantly increase public investment in distributed, community-owned renewables; and uphold strict accountability in climate finance to ensure transparency and no greenwashing.
Solidarity actions also took place in Japan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh as part of a growing regional movement demanding that development finance prioritize people and the planet over corporate profits and false climate fixes.
Masayoshi Iyoda, 350.org Japan Campaigner says:
“Japan, as ADB’s largest shareholder, bears an outsized responsibility in charting Asia’s climate future. Its joint efforts with the ADB to attract private investments in clean energy should clearly exclude fossil fuels—especially fossil gas which involves mostly Japanese companies. Fossil gas has no place in a real energy transition. It’s time that the Japanese government leads the ADB to invest in community-led renewable energy instead.”
Sisilia Nurmala Dewi, 350.org Indonesia Team Lead says:
“We are concerned with recent reports indicating that the ADB’s $600 million loan to the state-run PLN may fund new coal plants, and that a $92.6 million agreement will finance large geothermal expansion. ADB’s so-called ‘clean energy’ investments in Indonesia must be fully transparent, exclude fossil fuels, and respect the rights of communities. So far we haven’t seen it. Climate finance must go where it truly needs to: grant-based support for community renewables.”
Amanullah Porag, 350.org South Asia Coordinator says:
“In Bangladesh, the ADB has promised a dream of clean, affordable energy—but instead we are living under a nightmare of costly, dirty electricity. Most of ADB’s investments in the country have gone to fossil gas projects that have buried us in debt and locked us into gas imports we cannot afford. The ADB can still help us out of this worsening energy and climate crisis—by being accountable, completely ending fossil fuels, and realigning finance towards community-led renewable energy grants.”
Media Contacts:
Ilang-Ilang Quijano, 350.org Asia Communications Manager, [email protected], +639175810934
Nadia Cruz, 350 Pilipinas Media Officer, [email protected], +639770130207
350.org is a global grassroots movement dedicated to ending the age of fossil fuels and building a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
350 Pilipinas is an advocacy organization working for climate action that is based on the realities of science, and grounded on the principles of justice.