MANILA, Philippines—The Asian Development Bank targets to double its clean energy investments in the region to $2 billion yearly beginning 2013, in a bid to accelerate reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda announced Wednesday, which is the last day of the High- Level Dialogue on Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific.

The dialogue is one of the two conferences hosted by the ADB this week, dubbed as Climate and Clean Energy Week.

According to the Manila-based institution, the new investment target, which is part of its Energy Efficiency Initiative, would add to its “already significant” clean energy investments.

EEI was formed by the ADB to help increase energy security and mitigate the region’s growing greenhouse gas emission.

In 2008, ADB met its $1 billion a year investment target, which was set at the outset of the EEI four years ago.

“While $2 billion annually is a significant commitment, this represents only a fraction of the region’s financing needs in the area of clean energy. But we expect that this contribution will catalyze significant additional resources from the private sector, carbon markets and other sources,” Kuroda said.

ADB’s clean energy investments included the energy efficient lighting for low income households in the Philippines; wind power projects in China; hydropower development in Bhutan, and a biomass power plant in Thailand.

ADB said it also supported the improvement and expansion of energy-efficient mass transit systems in several Asian cities under the Sustainable Transport Initiative.

“Making buildings and transport systems more energy efficient is seen as the most cost-effective way of reducing Asia’s fast growing energy demand, improving supply-side efficiency, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and reducing countries’ reliance on expensive fossil fuel imports,” the ADB said.

In the first quarter of the year, ADB loans to the clean energy sector in the region rose by 1.5 percent to $478.6 million from year-ago level of $471.3 million.

During the period, the ADB approved loans for seven projects—covering renewable energy and energy efficiency—in the Philippines, India, China, Vietnam and Thailand.

In the Philippines, the ADB approved in January the $31.1-million loan to partly finance the government’s Philippine Energy Efficiency Project (PEEP), aimed at encouraging households and businesses to swap their incandescent bulbs for the more energy-efficient fluorescent lights.

The government wants to phase out the iconic bulbs by 2010 as the most effective way to save electricity and reduce greenhouse gases. The shift to fluorescent lights was expected to save the country $100 million in fuel cost yearly.

Under the PEEP, the ADB plans to distribute 13 million fluorescent globes to households and businesses in exchange for their incandescent bulbs.