Growth for a green future
The region’s environment faces daunting threats. The decline in forest cover and the steady rise of greenhouse gas emissions are a major challenge. The region has also become more vulnerable to extreme weather, rising sea levels, and other phenomena related to climate change. Poor communities in many ADF countries, particularly women and children, will continue to be hardest hit.
ADB promotes an environmentally sustainable growth, which include efforts to tackle climate change. ADF assistance supports infrastructure investments in clean, efficient, and climate-resilient energy systems; efficient and sustainable modes of transportation; increased access to reliable and affordable water and sanitation; and climate-resilient and livable cities. ADF projects also seek to improve natural resource management in rural areas, maintain the integrity of important regional ecosystems, and strengthen environmental governance and management capacities, while addressing climate change as a cross-priority issue.
Impact stories
After the Deluge
The floods and Cyclone Sidr of 2007 impacted the lives of some 25 million people. But an extensive rehabilitation and reconstruction program helped them to recover and resume their normal economic and social activities.
Protecting Cambodia's Watery Heart
Efforts to protect fish stocks are preserving a way of life along Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake and river system.
Easing the Burden of Water in Rural Cambodia
A community pond in rural Cambodia has made clean water accessible, staving off illness, and allowing women to work and children to attend school.
Restoring the Reef
NGOs under a pilot ADB project have mobilized some two-dozen shoreline villages to take charge of protecting their marine resources. By trading short-term pain for long-term gain, these villages are beginning to reverse the tide of overexploitation.
A Clean Fuel to Boost Incomes
Compressed natural gas has been around since the 1980s. Through an ADF-supported project, it has finally taken off in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
New Hope for Women
Water and sanitation investment projects are empowering women and creating a significant impact on gender relations in rural Pakistan.