How Asian Development Bank technical assistance is prolonging reliance on fossil gas

This briefing, published by Recourse and several partner organizations, argues that the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) technical assistance (TA) acts as a form of indirect funding that prolongs reliance on fossil gas. The document calls for the ADB to align its energy policy with the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C goal by phasing out all direct and indirect support for fossil gas and increasing transparency and accountability in its TA processes.

• Technical assistance (TA) provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) exerts significant strategic influence over long-term development pathways, project design, and policy directions, despite constituting a small portion of the bank's total financial commitments.
• The briefing identifies technical assistance as a mechanism for indirect funding of fossil gas and urges the ADB to use its energy policy review to phase out all fossil gas support to align with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement.
• The authors propose five key recommendations for the ADB: closing policy loopholes and clarifying definitions, requiring due diligence and risk disclosure for all TA, aligning energy policy with a fossil gas phase-out, embedding accountability and equity in TA, and ensuring TA is trackable and transparent.

APA

TrendAsia (2025). How Asian Development Bank technical assistance is prolonging reliance on fossil gas. Trend Asia. https://trendasia.org/en/briefing-how-asian-development-bank-technical-assistance-is-prolonging-reliance-on-fossil-gas/

Chicago

TrendAsia. How Asian Development Bank technical assistance is prolonging reliance on fossil gas. Trend Asia, 2025. https://trendasia.org/en/briefing-how-asian-development-bank-technical-assistance-is-prolonging-reliance-on-fossil-gas/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=TrendAsia |title=How Asian Development Bank technical assistance is prolonging reliance on fossil gas |publisher=Trend Asia |date=2 May 2025 |url=https://trendasia.org/en/briefing-how-asian-development-bank-technical-assistance-is-prolonging-reliance-on-fossil-gas/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{trendasia2025how, author = {TrendAsia}, title = {{How Asian Development Bank technical assistance is prolonging reliance on fossil gas}}, institution = {Trend Asia}, year = {2025}, month = may, url = {https://trendasia.org/en/briefing-how-asian-development-bank-technical-assistance-is-prolonging-reliance-on-fossil-gas/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }