'Our main goal is to protect the lives and livelihoods of climate-vulnerable people'

Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP, former President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Bangladesh Cricket Board, has recently been appointed as the 'Special Envoy to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina For Climate Change'. 

In an interview with The Business Standard, he talked about his new role, and shared his insight on Bangladesh's preparedness on facing the ongoing climate catastrophe. 

What will be your role as the PM's special climate envoy? What will you do on a priority basis?

I already have an ongoing involvement as the chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. That is more of an oversight role, and with the new appointment as the special envoy, I'll get more opportunity to be involved in the implementation processes.

Now, climate change has two dimensions: national and international. My role in the international arena will be to inject urgency into the international negotiations, mainly held by the UNFCCC, and expanding our partnerships. The most priority will be on pushing for global emission reduction, and securing more funds for our adaptation projects, as well as getting a share of the 'loss and damage fund'.

The world is not reducing emissions at the rate that we need to. If this continues, no country will be spared from the impacts of climate change. Photo: Mumit M

Our main goal is to protect the lives and livelihoods of climate-vulnerable people. We already have a climate ministry for all these, but this appointment, I believe, is the reflection of the Prime Minister's aspiration to see Bangladesh as a leader of global thought and action in terms of climate change. 

We have a very aspirational Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan, which chalks out the plan to move the country from vulnerability to resilience, and then to prosperity. We do not see Bangladesh only as a victim, but we believe we can be a part of the solution. There are many areas; I'll be working with these on my mind, aligning with the activities of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

How successful do you think we are in accessing different climate funds?

Simplifying the process of accessing the funds is important not only for Bangladesh but also for many other countries. Ours is one of the most impacted countries, having contributed the least to the problem. Our National Adaptation Plan requires $230 billion for the next 27 years. If the temperature rises up to 2 degree celsius, the amount required will shoot up accordingly.

Outside of the adaptation and mitigation funds, we also fought for the 'loss and damage fund' for vulnerable countries in the COP27, which has been agreed upon by the parties. Now we have to figure out how to operationalise the funds, determine who the recipients should be, who gets how much, etc.

Also, there is no clear definition of climate finance, which makes it difficult to determine who is giving what. So, we'll have to work on that too, and we will be fully engaged in the process.

We often talk about accessing climate funds, but how are we doing in the area of technology transfer? 

Many emphasise on renewables while talking about technology transfer. In the power sector, we have more installed capacity than our actual demand. We have the capacity for producing around 25,000 megawatt, while the demand is around 14,000 mw. What to do with this buffer is an important question. 

The traditional development pathway is like this, but if we get advanced technology, we can leapfrog without having to go through the traditional development phases.

Talking about renewables, Bangladesh set the goal of generating 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. As of today, we are getting only about 4% of the total power from renewable energy sources. Why are we failing in this sector?

The share of renewable energy is less than 4%. We will have to admit that it is a failure. We planned it, but couldn't implement it. There are complaints that we don't have enough land for that etc, but I think technology has advanced a lot. 

Our immediate focus is the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan. Here, we aim to reach 40% renewable energy by 2040, with grid resilience and modernisation. Our upcoming policies, such as the Integrated Energy and Power Master Plan must be aligned with these objectives. 

Many are critical that while the West greenwashes with climate funds, it actively tries and preserves its lifestyle, which is in the first place responsible for climate catastrophe. What is your take on that?

There is no space for double standards in climate change actions. We have to solve the problem faster than we are creating it. Continuing emission of greenhouse gases on the one hand, and keeping emphasising on net-zero goals is contradictory; this will not work. 

The world is not reducing emissions at a rate that we need to. If this continues, no country will be spared from the impacts of climate change.

It is a global problem which requires a global fix, and it requires global solidarity.

On the side of self-criticism, we are also setting up new car companies in the country, while apart from the metro rail, we see little to no improvement in the public transport sector. Even bringing all the buses of the city under a single company with a view to providing decent services has not seen much success in years since the initiative was taken. How do you see this?

There was a proposal from the Department of Environment to impose duty on vehicles based on emission instead of engine displacement (cc). A polluting car will pay more. We have to apply the 'polluter pays' principle here.

Public transport is also very important. It is important to develop the last mile connectivity in the case of public transport such as metro rail. We have to integrate our bus service and the metro rail. And there is a lot to be done in this sector. 

In the near past, foot over-bridges with escalators and traffic signal systems were constructed with climate change trust fund money. People had a hard time figuring out the relationship between the two. Why do you think this happens; we don't know where to use the money?

It was done in the past, and we have learnt our lessons. The climate change trust fund is supposed to be spent for the protection of lives and livelihoods of people living in the most affected areas - to me it is the coastal areas. 

If you set up solar street lamps or construct foot over-bridges in Dhaka city, or even establish a safari park somewhere with this fund, I do not think it is appropriate. We have raised this issue from the standing committee.

From now on, we are trying to encourage research activities. If there is a sudden hazard or shock, the trust money can be spent in the response programme, but I think most of it should go to research activities. 

For the first time, we are doing a valuation of natural resources (Natural Resource Accounting - NRA). For example, Sundarbans is a great carbon sink, and it protects coastal communities from cyclones. Once we are done with the valuation of these free services from nature, we will be able to track the gain or loss of our natural resources year on year. We are developing the tools for it now.

Although preparation is a continuous process, how prepared do you think we are to face the climate catastrophe? What should we be focusing on doing in the near future?

If carbon emission is continued as it is now, whatever preparations we take won't suffice. Mitigation is the best form of adaptation. So we will have to lower emissions to an acceptable level.

And in terms of disaster risk reduction, what we must ensure is not to create new risks, and increase resilience.

Currently, adaptation and disaster management is managed by two different ministries. I think we need to coordinate between the two more effectively.