Gansu Baiyin Urban Development Project

While the heating component helped expand the heating service area and reduce the annual coal consumption and sulfur dioxide emissions as targeted, the project formulation team could have carried out more extensive studies to include in the project design innovative measures to gradually phase out coal as the heating source. This is especially important given the ADB’s new energy policy. In the future, ADB will need to take a more cautious approach to decarbonize, as called for by the Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General.