government organizations to participate in the discussions, reported dpa. The ADB said it established the Clean Development Mechanism Facility in August 2003, which allowed member-developing countries to access financial resources through efficient emissions reduction to promote sustainable development. Greenpeace, however, noted that of the ADB's energy financing portfolio from 1966 to 2004, only 1.8 per cent went towards funding renewable energy and energy efficiency. It added that the majority of the ADB's energy programme went toward fossil fuel power projects such as the Masinloc coal plant in the northern Philippines and the Mae Moh coal plant in Thailand. Athena Ronquillo, another Greenpeace official, said the ADB has already earmarked funding for newer coal plants in Thailand. "It is obscene that plants like these are some of the biggest climate change culprits and yet billions of taxpayer dollars are being used to finance dirty coal power projects like them across Asia," she said. Ronquillo urged the ADB and other international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, to commit to a 20 per cent renewable energy target for power project lending annually. "They need to come clean on dirty energy," she said. Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior arrived in the Philippines last week as part of a campaign promoting clean renewable energy. The Philippine leg of the campaign, however, was marred by an accident in the Tubbataha Reefs, a World Heritage site off the western province of Palawan, where the Rainbow Warrior damaged closed to 100 square metres of corals. Philippine authorities fined Greenpeace more than 6,000 dollars for the damage, which the group immediately paid. --SP 1508 Local Time 1208 GMT
