A shepherdess watches over her flock of sheep grazing near a coal plant in Jepara, Central Java, Indonesia. Coal burning causes a trail of destruction that is no less harmful than coal mining. Coal powered plants emit pollutants such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and methane, which are major air pollutants and one of the main contributors to climate change (Photo: Kemal Jufri/Greenpeace).
Globally, there is emerging rhetoric against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) values aimed at imposing radical agendas and sharpening societal divisions. The pushback is so strong that some are calling it a backlash threatening advancements made in gender equality. This open assault on our collective, hard-won progress toward a more equal and inclusive society raises urgent questions about the future of equality and inclusion in Asia’s energy transition.
By Bernadette Victorio and Maria Lauranti
The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) is at risk of leaving women, girls, and gender minorities behind in Asia’s energy transition. Launched at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), the ADB’s ETM is seen as a potential step toward helping key Asian countries meet greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets by incentivizing the swift retirement of existing coal-fired power plants (CFPPs). However, as observed in its pilot project at Cirebon 1 CFPP in Indonesia, the ADB’s ETM model requires robust support if it is to meaningfully benefit, include, and engage women and marginalized groups.
As we approach March 8 International Women’s Day, Fair Finance Asia (FFA) and Oxfam in Asia affirm that energy transition financing mechanisms, such as the ADB’s ETM, must not only align with GHG emission reduction targets, but also unequivocally advance principles of justice, gender equality, and women’s empowerment.
To truly achieve these objectives, there is a critical need to direct more resources and strategic investments towards developing sustainable and clean renewable energy projects, urgently phase out fossil fuel dependency, and address risks and adverse impacts on vulnerable groups, particularly marginalized communities. Women, girls, and other minority groups are affected disproportionately by key challenges, such as disrupted livelihoods and income, gender-based discrimination in job opportunities and resource access, exclusion from meaningful consultation and decision-making, increased burdens of unpaid care and domestic work (UCDW), heightened threats of gender-based violence (GBV), and degraded living spaces and reduced quality of life due to changes in the environment, such as poorer air or water quality.
Despite these challenges, Asia’s energy transition presents an immense and unparalleled opportunity to address gender inequalities entrenched in social norms and economic systems and forge an equitable and gender-transformative energy future.
FFA’s recent study, endorsed and co-published by Climate Action Network Southeast Asia (CANSEA), Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), Reclaim Finance, Recourse, Reality of Aid Asia-Pacific (RoA-AP), and Fair Finance International (FFI), found that the Preliminary Just Transition Assessment (PJTA) summary report and Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) associated with the early retirement of Cirebon 1 inadequately identified gender issues and lacked gender-disaggregated data, meaningful consultation with women, local women’s rights organizations (WROs), and other marginalized groups. There was also insufficient analysis of key gendered impacts. If unaddressed, ADB’s lack of comprehensive gender assessment frameworks and intersectional analysis may not only reinforce and aggravate gender inequalities and existing discriminatory norms and power structures, but also worsen gender outcomes.
Equally alarming is the ADB’s limited and delayed responses to repeated calls by Asian civil society organizations (CSOs) to address concerns raised not only in FFA’s latest report, but also those related to the ADB’s Environmental and Social Framework (ESF), approved in November 2024, which has severely watered-down relevant gender safeguards, including the removal of requirements for mandatory project gender impact assessments. The fact that the ADB insufficiently engages CSO voices and dodges accountability in its “business as usual” implementation of the ETM is not new to FFA, Oxfam, and CSO allies, who have previously raised critical social, environmental, and rights-based concerns regarding the ETM’s misalignment with climate science imperatives, unclear application of ADB’s safeguards, lack of meaningful consultations with communities, promotion of resource-intensive energy alternatives (“false solutions”), and lack of transparency in the terms and conditions for the early retirement of CFPP.
FFA and Oxfam resolutely demand that the ADB provides more transparent and timely responses to these issues and concerns, and urgently consider empowerment initiatives designed to dismantle entrenched gender norms in the implementation of the ETM.
So, what change do we want to see? First, just transition planning in all ETM countries must be guided by a commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment, through the design and delivery of gender-transformative projects. Second, all assessments of the potential risks and opportunities of the ETM should include the collection and analysis of gender-disaggregated data, such as information on gendered impacts on health, livelihoods, UCDW, GBV, changes to household and community power dynamics, energy access, employment, and decent work. Third, it is critical that a stand-alone gender impact assessment (in addition to tools such as the SESA and the just transition plan) be in place, and that this is delivered with inclusive, active, meaningful, and continuous participation of women, WROs, and CSOs throughout the project cycle. Fourth, the ADB must strengthen initiatives that promote energy democracy through small-scale, locally owned, and gender-representative energy systems. Fifth and finally, the ADB must elevate its commitment by embedding robust gender-responsive elements in the ESF and other relevant energy transition strategy and policies.
As Asia’s energy transition intensifies, the opportunity for a gender-transformative energy future expands, but is contingent upon swift, decisive action. It is imperative for governments, financial institutions, and policymakers to forge alliances with local communities that ensure the delivery of financing models that empower women, girls, and other gender minorities across Asia. A 2020 report by Gender Action, NGO Forum on ADB (the Forum), Oxfam, and Recourse, found that the ADB has stronger gender policies compared to other international financial institutions (IFIs). In addition, under its Strategy 2030, the ADB commits to supporting greater economic empowerment for women, enhanced gender equality in human development, and enhanced gender equality in decision-making and leadership. The ADB has some other tools to course correct. FFA and Oxfam urge it to step up to its own standards and gender commitments in the design and implementation of the ETM and its pilot in Cirebon 1.
FFA and Oxfam believe that a gender-transformative energy transition in Asia is absolutely possible. There is no reason why women, girls, and other gender minorities cannot share equally in the transition’s benefits and opportunities for input and leadership. Actualizing this vision necessitates exponential efforts and region-wide and multi-stakeholder collaboration that embraces sustainability, social justice, and equitable development principles.
Bernadette Victorio is the Program Lead of Fair Finance Asia, a regional network of more than 90 Asian CSOs committed to ensuring that financial institutions’ funding decisions in the region respect the social and environmental well-being of local communities. Follow FFA on X/Twitter @FairFinanceAsia
Maria Lauranti is the Country Director of Oxfam in Indonesia. Oxfam is a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice in Asia. Follow Oxfam in Indonesia on LinkedIn @oxfaminindonesia. Follow Oxfam in Asia on Bluesky @oxfaminasia.bsky.social