‘Uncertainty of existence’ revolves around the daily life of the population of Bangladesh. About eighty percent landscape of Bangladesh is climate-affected. Hence, the international climate authority indicates the country as one of the most climate-affected zones. They also introduce climate finance investment as a means of survival for such vulnerable country people. At the same time, the geography and ecology indicate that the inclusion of nature’s demands in the shaping of ‘development is also a major solution for Bangladesh.
According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the developed countries are committed to delivering USD 100 billion to the most climate-vulnerable developing countries as climate finance. Simultaneously, Bangladesh gets fundings from international initiatives like the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Green Climate Fund (UNFCCC fund), Climate Investment Funds (CIF), bilateral and multilateral channels, private fundings every year. International sources supply only 25 percent of Bangladesh’s climate finance.
Furthermore, governmental and non-governmental state initiatives such as Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF), Bangladesh Climate Resilience Fund (BCRF), Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation (PKSF), Pilot Project on Climate Resilience (PPCR) are available to enact the climate change adaptation and mitigation plans.
Figure1: The Sources and Structure of Climate Finance of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh government processes the funds and funded projects in the light of some legal frameworks like the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act (BECA), Climate Change Trust Fund Act 2010 (CCTFA), Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP), Bangladesh Country Investment Plan for Environment Forestry and Climate Change (CIP-EFCC) 2016- 2021, Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 (BDP 2100), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Perspective Plan (2021-2041) and 8th Five year Plan (2021-2025). But most of the funded projects are based on the global climate adaptation goal rather than the mitigation goal.
These are shortly all about the structure of the climate finance process and the sources of climate finance in Bangladesh. But without effective utilization of the funds, the country can not heal its environmental wounds. Then, if we go through the evaluations of ICCCAD, USAID, and TIB, we will meet with various significant concerns and limitations in the entire climate finance system and its management. The reports indicated the lack of proper accountability and transparency, information gaps, lack of collaboration among the governing bodies and the affected grassroots communities, lack of research, staffs are not well-trained about climate change adaptation and mitigation, technical lackings in the involved ministries and divisions and so on as the shortcomings. Moreover, they add many recommendations, and well-designed climate finance management structures to increase the utilization and efficacy of the allocated funds.
Unfortunately, the commitment of the COP15 is yet to be realized by the developed countries. In this case, the COVID19 pandemic played a tragic role that hampered the flow of global climate finance. Even currently at the year of the COP26, only USD 50 billion is delivered to the extremely affected developing countries. And the allotment is only for the adaptation projects. At the same time, getting funds is very competitive for developing countries. So, lackings of efficacy and proper utilization of the climate finance investment can demotivate the donors also. Therefore, immediate action to reduce limitations, more research, and more coordination in the governmental systems of climate finance will step Bangladesh ahead to get more investments.
The development budget covers almost sixty percent of the climate finance here. Then, on the one side, the government utilizes the funds to cover the adaptation scope of the issue. On the other side, the government designs and finances such developmental projects which cause great environmental disturbance and climate displacements. For instance, we can easily commemorate projects like Rampal Coal-Fired Power Plant, and Kaptai Dam, etc.
Thus, Bangladesh needs to stop such projects which directly and indirectly cause ecocides. At the same time, the country must find out alternative solutions to protect the already affected natural resources like Sundarbans and populations due to such ecocidal projects. So, without encountering the fact that continuing with the environment-excluded developmental initiatives, the country actually will lose the proper utilization of the climate finance investment.
Last but not the least, Bangladesh poses such a geographic and ecological state that every sectoral development in the country is entirely dependent on its environmental settings. So, the efficacy of the total climate finance procedure can not be possible by excluding the ecological demands.
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