Bangladesh must have a definite and transparent system of calculating greenhouse gas emissions: Speakers

Bangladesh must have a definite and transparent system of calculating greenhouse gas emissions, speakers at a workshop said today (30 April).

The National Workshop on 'Transition to Enhanced Transparency Framework(ETF): The Way Forward for Bangladesh' was at Bangabandhu Military Museum in Dhaka, reads a press release. 

The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) jointly organised the workshop under the 'Climate Promise - From Pledge to Impact' project

The key objective of the workshop was to engage sectoral experts and relevant ministries and line agencies in a dialogue to explore opportunities, identify human and institutional capacity needs enhancement to establish transparent GHG accounting and tracking mechanism.

Welcoming the participants UNDP Programme Specialist Arif Faisal said, "Ensuring transparency in GHG inventory is crucial for upholding environmental integrity within the Paris Agreement. Article 13 of the Paris Agreement shapes the formation of the ETF, intending to foster mutual trust and confidence as well as enhancing effective implementation." 

UNDP will continue to provide catalytic support to the govt to establish a robust institutional arrangement for advancing ETF, he added. 

Md Mahmud Hossain, deputy director of the Department of Environment, in his presentation, said, "Under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement, establishing an ETF is critically important for Bangladesh. In this regard, the government has implemented the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency project." 

This project aims to strengthen institutional and human capacities to meet the requirements of the ETF and track progress in the priority actions identified in Bangladesh's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).

Dr S M Munjurul Hannan Khan, executive director of NACOM in his keynote presentation on ETF: Global and National Transparency Perspective and Insight said, "Bangladesh will benefit both nationally and internationally through ETF." Nationally it will help to gain political acceptance, create scope for an informed policy process, build the capacity in reporting and raise awareness." 

Taking part in the discussion Dr Ainun Nishat, Professor Emeritus and Advisor, C3ER, BRAC University said, "Realistic emission data is critical to achieve Net Zero Target by 2050". To do that Bangladesh needs to revisit the logical framework approach (LFA) based on monitoring data and shift toward the theory of change.

Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, economist and chairman of Dhaka School of Economics (DSE) moderated the open discussion.

"We need to enhance our efficiency in resource use as well as reduce waste," Kholiquzzaman said.

To move forward, Bangladesh will establish a fully functionalized measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system, an enhanced institutionalisation arrangement, and implement the ETF roadmap.

A consortium led by Nature Conservation Management (NACOM) in partnership with the Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research (C3ER), BRAC University and the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) is facilitating the implementation.