BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.4. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a regional technical assistance (TA) project to support the decarbonization of hard-to-abate industrial and maritime sectors, with participation from Azerbaijan, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, Trend reports via the ADB.
The knowledge and support TA will be financed through multiple sources, including $500,000 from the Technical Assistance Special Fund, $1 million from the Smart Energy Innovation Fund, and $750,000 from the Spanish Cooperation Fund for Technical Assistance.
The initiative aligns with ADB’s key operational priorities, including accelerating progress in gender equality, tackling climate change and strengthening climate and disaster resilience, enhancing environmental sustainability, strengthening governance and institutional capacity, and fostering regional cooperation and integration.
The TA aims to support developing member countries (DMCs) in accelerating the decarbonization of sectors that are difficult to abate—such as cement, steel, fertilizers, petrochemicals, and maritime transport—in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. While some countries have already begun this transition, ADB noted that the pace of transformation needs to be significantly accelerated across different development pathways. The transition is expected to be just and inclusive, ensuring affordable, reliable, and equitable access to energy services.
Specifically, the TA will support upstream analytical work and project pipeline development across multiple countries, facilitate knowledge and information sharing from more advanced economies to less developed ones, and promote regional cooperation. ADB emphasized that regional and global standards are particularly important for hard-to-abate sectors, and that cooperation agreements can help enable effective trade arrangements.
The technical assistance will provide a comprehensive package of support, including sectoral and country-specific assessments, development of new business models, pre-feasibility studies and other technical analyses, organization of workshops and policy dialogues, institutional capacity building on decarbonization technologies, and the development of pilot projects and investment pipelines to be financed by ADB and other development partners.