"Asia’s new investment bank can change the rules and clean up", 17 May 2017

“China needs to do something which can help it be recognised as a responsible member of the international economic community…” …was the message of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), uttered by its President Jin Liqun…The Bank’s first major opportunity to demonstrate this ‘responsibility’ will come with the AIIBs new ‘Energy Sector Strategy’ due to be unveiled at Jeju in South Korea in mid-June…

Power and development should not come at the expense of the health and well-being of people…Given the current consensus of the international community on the issue of climate change, as expressed in the Paris Agreement, there is no more room for new coal anywhere in the globe…The AIIB need only look to countries such as India [and Korea] to see that renewable energy is not only environmentally responsible, but also economically the right choice…

AIIB stands at an opportune moment where it can either be just one of the players in a game which disenfranchises millions from the promise of energy and development, or it can choose the more meaningful path of changing the rules of the game…Coal is an industry of a bygone era and should simply be written off the agenda for any investor making a claim to be “responsible”…Only by standing strong on its core value of being “Lean, Clean and Green” can the AIIB can be truly responsible in helping forge the sustainable path that Southeast Asia needs.