Japan ? Japan pledged $100 million in grants to the Asian Development Bank on Sunday to combat global warming and promote greener investment in the region and called for a stronger international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The money is part of a new initiative by the government in Tokyo to support sustainable development in response to increasing concern that Asia’s breakneck economic growth is destroying the environment. It comes just days after a breakthrough agreement in Thailand set the world’s first roadmap for fighting climate change.

Addressing environmental problems is a priority at the ADB, which was founded four decades ago to fight poverty through economic growth. The ADB is working to counter the mentality that poor nations that want progress must sacrifice the environment – and criticism that the bank funds rampant development.

“I think for quite some time, Asia has made the assumption that you grow first and worry about the environment later,” ADB Managing Director General Rajat Nag said. He said regional governments no longer believed “that the environment is something you don’t need to worry about today.”

Over the last three decades, Asia’s energy consumption has grown by 230 percent, and it is expected to double again by 2030, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said Sunday. The region already accounts for a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions – a leading cause of global warming.