Re: "ADB needs to clean up its stance on climate change", Bangkok Post, December 10, 2006

There is no evidence that carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants causes global warming or that global warming increases the severity or the frequency of typhoons. Even if there were, there could not be a more inappropriate target for protest than the Asian Development Bank. The sum total of the annual CO2 production from ADB-funded power projects is likely to be less than a single day's production in America alone. ADB projects provide electricity to the poor, who otherwise would not have access to electric power. It is the rich who are consuming the world's energy, not the poorest of the poor. The fat man is telling the thin man to eat even less. It is criminal hypocrisy to deny to poor Asians the wealth and comfort that are taken for granted by Westerners and that were made available to them by fossil fueled economic growth.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand