Bangladesh is neither prepared for changing weather nor skilled enough to attract and utilise global climate funds, said Professor Ainun Nishat, a renowned Bangladeshi climate negotiator and water expert.
“Bangladesh’s climate action needs trans-disciplinary coordination when climate actions lack inter-ministerial coordination,” he said while addressing a national seminar ‘Bangladesh's Climate Resilience and Financing: Challenges, Opportunities and Way Forward’.
Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) organised the event today (1 July) in Dhaka.
Addressing as the chief guest, member of parliament and Climate Parliament Bangladesh convenor Nahim Razzaque urged climate actors to explore public-private partnerships and innovative financing methods amid minimal availability of grants for climate adaptation and mitigation.
Observing that there is a lack of oversight, transparency and accountability, Nahim said, “Impact analysis [of a climate project] must be one of the benchmarks for ensuring a sustainable sourcing of climate finance.”
Finance Division’s Additional Secretary Mohammad Abu Yusuf, BIISS’s Senior Research Fellow Sufia Khanom, and IUCN Bangladesh Representative and Bangladesh Institute of Planners’ General Secretary Shaikh Muhammad Mehedi Ahsan presented three separate keynotes.
Yusuf said blended finance, attracting private capital, could be an effective way of scaling up climate finance.
Sufia mentioned 113 necessary interventions in Bangladesh’s climate resilience and estimated that the country would require $230 billion for the next 27 years.
While requesting more investment in skill development and innovative solutions, Mehedi said unless the bureaucratic system endorses innovative ideas, innovative climate projects will not bring positive results.
ActionAid Bangladesh’s Country Director Farah Kabir, urging participation from private entities, warned that nobody, including the private sector, is out of the climate change impacts.
Retired Air Commodore Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury said the establishment of a Sundarbans Fund, for the Bangladesh and Indian parts of the mangrove forests, may bring positive outcomes like what has been done in the case of Amazon Fund.
Chaired by BIISS chairman and Ambassador AFM Gousal Azam Sarker, BIISS Director General Major General Md Abu Bakar Siddique Khan, Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation’s Deputy Managing Director Fazle Rabbi Sadeque Ahmed, among others, also spoke at the seminar.
