They also called for real climate actions emphasising on grant-based climate finance to avoid the crippling debt traps and also to address the country’s escalating climate vulnerabilities
Civil society organisations or CSOs operating in Bangladesh haveurgently demanded the phasing out of fossil fuel, the revision of the existing power master plan, ensured adequate and sustainable climate finance and a rapid transition to renewable energy.
The demands came in a demonstration by a joint multinational coalition of WaterKeepers Bangladesh, Youth Net, Friends of the Earth, 350.org and Don’t Gas Asia among other platforms at the ongoing COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan on November 15, says a press release.
The CSO representatives carrying banners held the protests at the Baku Olympic Stadium.
Stressing on the immediate phase out of fossil fuels-based false solutions in Bangladesh’s energy master plan, they called for real climate actions emphasising on grant-based climate finance to avoid the crippling debt traps and also to address the country’s escalating climate vulnerabilities.
The CSOs asserted that the climate crisis exacerbated by fossil fuel reliance and demanded bold action now from the COP 29 leaders.
Waterkeepers Bangladesh Coordinator Sharif Jamil said,”There are ammonia co-firing and hydrogen based solutions proposed in Bangladesh’s energy master plan or the Integrated Energy and Power Master Plan (IEPMP).
“We are urging the government that they must review the IEPMP and they shouldn’t focus on the gas expansion, instead they should focus on renewable energy expansion to protect Bangladesh’s economy, ecology and people.”
Sohanur Rahman, executive coordinator of Youth Net for Climate Justice said,”In Bangladesh, we have fossil fuels-powered Integrated Energy and Power Master Plan (IEPMP). It’s now high time to revise this and deploy a people-oriented energy master plan that will protect our climate and economy.
“The current energy master plan or IEPMP isn’t very ambitious, and it has some loopholes like the carbon capture and hydrogen-based technologies that have been proposed. These are false solutions, barriers for just energy energy transitions. So we are urging Bangladesh to come up with a new, revised IEPMP.”
Amanullah Porag, South Asia mobilizations coordinator at 350.org, emphasised on renewable energy-based transition and said, “Bangladesh needs to directly shift from fossil fuel to renewables. We need to phase out fossil fuels such as coal and LNG because it is expensive.
“Gas is giving us debt, economic instability, climate loans, climate crisis. Bangladesh’s power master plan is heavily backed by Japan and does not support energy transition; rather it locks us into expensive imported fossil fuels and false solutions in the name of advanced technologies.”
