One phrase was conspicuously absent from the annual meetings of the Asian Development Bank last week: climate change. Despite ADB’s long-standing branding as “Asia and the Pacific’s climate bank,” that title was rarely heard at last week’s gathering in Milan, Italy.
In a 2021 announcement, ADB said it planned to invest $100 billion in climate finance between 2019 and 2030, and last year it committed $12.3 billion in climate finance, including 60% to climate mitigation efforts.
But in Milan, none of the sessions included the word “climate” in their titles. For comparison, it appeared 12 times in the sessions’ titles at last year’s annual meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia — or about a quarter of all events.
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About the author
Alessio Perrone
Alessio Perrone is a freelance editor and reporter at Devex. Throughout his career, he has reported on issues at the intersection of policy, environment and human interest for outlets including The Guardian, Scientific American, TIME, and others. He’s based in Milan, Italy.
