Experts push for adopting ‘green growth’ agenda

Bangladesh should take up the "green growth" agenda to ensure environment-friendly development, experts said at an online consultation workshop on Wednesday.

They also called for making an effective proposal to get funding from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), a global platform to respond to climate change by investing in low-emission and climate-resilient development in developing countries.

Presiding over the programme, organised by the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI), PRI Chairman Zaidi Sattar said, "Bangladesh is currently experiencing high growth. Now we have to adopt a green growth [policy]. Eco-friendly green factories are already being set up in the readymade garment industry and such factories need to be set up in other sectors as well."

He said, "We can follow the example set by South Korea. It was a low-income country 15 years ago, but now it has become a high-income country, and they have given importance to green growth."

Sattar said the government will take up 80 projects to implement by 2030 under its ambitious Delta Plan 2100 that addresses climate change issues and sustainable development.

For that, he said, Bangladesh will have to secure $2 billion in assistance every year.

Planning Minister Shamsul Alam, who spoke as chief guest at the workshop, styled "Climate Change and Institutions in Bangladesh", said each ministry has to work according to an action plan to deal with the adverse effects of climate change and the Delta Plan needs to be implemented in a coordinated manner.

Abhas Jha, practice manager, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, South Asia Region of the World Bank, said Bangladesh has become a role model for other countries in dealing with disasters.

He said, "Now every agency and ministry has to think about how it can better deal with the adverse effects of climate change.

"For instance, the Roads and Highways Department can plan how to build a sustainable road for 40-50 years."

Presenting the keynote paper on "Climate Change Institutional Assessment" at the workshop, Hasan Moinuddin, a senior fellow at PRI, said in FY20, 25 ministries/divisions were allotted 58.11% of the national budget. Of that, only 7.8% was earmarked for mitigating climate change impacts. 

PRI Executive Director Ahsan H Mansur also spoke on the occasion.