One-size-fits-all approach won’t work for early coal phase-out, says ADB director-general

IMAGINE a community’s energy consumption as a two-layered cake, with the chocolate layer at the bottom and the matcha layer on top, says Ramesh Subramaniam, director-general of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and chief-designate of its sectors group.

If the chocolate part is coal, and the matcha portion is green energy, then the aim of ADB’s Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) is to replace as much of the chocolate as possible with matcha so that communities in Asia are living on a healthier diet of energy.

The challenge lies in figuring out how to make that switch and still keep the cake palatable. For instance, a transition plan in Indonesia must focus on how to accelerate the retirement of a very young portfolio of coal plants.