Sonargaon, Bangladesh. Photo by Allauddin Miajee on Unsplash

Bangladesh

CCAC Partner since
2012
Key policies
CCAC projects
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Bangladesh is a founding member of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and since 2012 has been strategically reducing short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) with tools ranging from green technology investment for brick kilns to climate finance funds that will help spark the transition to the country’s green future.

“Becoming a founding member of the CCAC meant that SLCP reduction activities received more recognition, and activities could be scaled up,” said Dr. Sultan Ahmed, the then Director of the Department of Environment of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

In 2018, the Ministry endorsed one of its most significant commitments to climate and clean air yet. The sweeping National Action Plan for Reducing Short-Lived Climate Pollutants includes 11 priority measures in six different sectors, including transportation, household energy, fossil fuel production and transport, waste management, and agriculture and livestock. Fully implementing these measures—which include things like clean biomass stoves, updating traditional brick kilns, and eliminating high emitting road transport vehicles—would reduce black carbon emissions by 72 percent by 2040 and methane by 37 percent.

We are already observing and feeling the impacts of climate change. It's happening in the form of severe cyclones, floods, droughts, and fires that will only become more extreme. Reducing the short-lived climate pollutants with significant global warming reduction potentials is critical to slow down the climate crisis. The CCAC has solutions that countries can implement today and NDC targets to achieve our desired climate goals.
Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh

Bangladesh has already taken charge of its freight sector, advancing the country’s green freight through enterprising national legislation such as the National Multimodal Transport Policy. It is also an endorser of the CCAC’s Global Green Freight Action Plan. This is especially critical work given that by 2050 developing countries in Asia are expected to account for over half of the total global surface freight transport.

The Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has been working since 2014 to implement the CCAC’s Agriculture Initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from rice production in Bangladesh by using Alternate Wetting and Drying, a strategy that can cut emissions in half.

In 2013, as part of the CCAC’s Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) Initiative, Coalition partners approved funding to develop an initial HFC inventory in Bangladesh. This produced a report on current emissions, projections of growth patterns, and identified opportunities and challenges for transitioning to more climate-friendly alternative appliances.

Farmers in northwestern Bangladesh learn to grow climate friendly rice through a CCAC-funded project in 2018.
Farmers in northwestern Bangladesh learn to grow climate friendly rice. CCAC-funded project, 2018.

Brick kilns have been another strategic intervention for the country—and an important one given that they are one of the largest stationary sources of black carbon. Along with iron and steel production, they contribute 20 percent of total black carbon emissions. In 2017, Bangladesh published the National Strategy for Sustainable Brick Production recommending policies for sustainable brick manufacturing that would address the industry’s major social and economic issues, the policy gaps blocking mitigation, and priority areas of action. In 2020, the Europen Union funded SWITCH-Asia ‘Promoting Sustainable Building in Bangladesh’ which cuts air pollution and energy use from traditional brick kilns and reduces overall construction costs.

Bangladesh is one of the countries on the frontlines of climate change, with catastrophic flooding and cyclones already threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions of citizens. This makes Bangladesh’s commitment to SLCP mitigation even more significant because their short atmospheric lifespan means their reduction will have rapid effects, helping to flatten the curve of climate change.

Keep reading below for more highlights of Bangladesh’s work. 

KEY SLCP policIES

CCAC projects

Bangladesh has received CCAC project funding since 2013. Our latest projects are listed below. See more projects in Bangladesh

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Other activities

Air Pollution

  • In 2019, the Clean Air Bill was drafted by the Department of Environment and the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association, which set penalties of imprisonment or fines for violating air pollution standards. It also proposed that a National Quality Management Plan be drafted within a year of the law coming into effect.
  • From 2009-2019 the Clean Air and Sustainable Environment Project in partnership with the World Bank worked to tackle pollution from brickfields and transports. Among other activities, it establishes 16 continuous air quality monitoring stations in 7 major cities.
  • In 2013, the Clean Air Partnership for Bangladesh was formed to strengthen air quality management through young professionals' exchanges. The partnership is made up of Clean Air Asia, the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

Agriculture

  • From 2017-2020, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the CCAC designed the “Livestock Development-based Dairy Revolution and Meat Production Project-LDDP” to reduce methane emissions in the livestock sector. The project worked to improve the national emissions inventory by coordinating a household survey on livestock production practices and analyzing the findings. This information will help the country better achieve their Nationally Determined Contributions and raise the ambition of their future efforts.
  • In 2017, a cohort of organizations and the CCAC worked with Bangladesh to identify low-cost strategies to reduce methane emissions while contributing to the countries’ development and increasing resilience to climate change. The study "Options for Low Emission Development in the Bangladesh Dairy Sector" found that technical interventions such as deworming and improved diets can increase milk production by 26 percent while decreasing emission intensity by 17 percent.
  • In 2016, The Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock published the Draft National Integrated Livestock Manure Management Policy, demonstrating how improved manure management paired with good policy and regulatory frameworks can transform waste into a valuable resource.
  • In 2014, work began to implement Alternate Wetting and Drying, a form of rice cultivation that has the potential to cut emissions in half and help farmers better manage their resources—a huge step given that rice paddies are a major source of emissions in the country.

Energy

  • In 2015, the Renewable energy program for Bangladesh (SREP Bangladesh) incorporated renewable energy generation into the grid and continued expanding off-grid electrification programs.
  • In 2020, Bangladesh’s Minister of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources announced that the country was reviewing all but three of 29 planned coal plants to start moving away from coal as a source of fuel.

Transport

  • In 2018, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority began the development of policies and instruments to improve the fuel efficiency of the national light duty vehicle fleet.
  • Since 2015, Bangladesh has been reducing vehicle emissions by importing diesel fuels with a lower sulphur content, restricting the importation of used cars over four years old, and implementing emission standards for petrol at Euro 2 and diesel Euro I.
  • In 2012, the Greater Dhaka Sustainable Urban Transport Project was approved which will build a sustainable urban transport system with the help of the Asian Development Bank. It will include a 20 kilometre bus rapid transit corridor as well as a depot and terminal facilities.

Energy efficiency

Brick production

  • In 2019, The Brick Production and Brick Kiln Building Control Act (first enacted in 2013) was amended, mandating that brick kilns use emissions-reducing technology.
  • In 2019, in collaboration with the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, the Bangladesh Brick Sector Road Map was published, which reviews the state of the brick sector and proposes specific recommendations to reduce pollution. It also outlines a transition plan from informal brick production to energy efficient manufacturing.
  • The Clean Air and Sustainable Environment (CASE) project that completed in 2019 is now contributing to reduce air pollution from transport and brick kilns

Climate Finance

  • In 2020, the Ministry of Finance published Climate Financing for Sustainable Development, a report demonstrating maximum budget allocations for food security, social security and health, infrastructure, emissions mitigation, and low carbon development. The report includes data and analytics for government-wide climate change allocations.
  • In 2017, the Bangladesh Country Investment Plan for Environment, Forestry and Climate Change (CIP-EFCC) 2016-2021 was launched. It is the first framework for national and international investments for the environment, forestry, and climate change sectors in Bangladesh and will contribute to sustainable, climate-friendly development.
  • In 2016, Bangladesh Bank launched a $200 million Green Transformation Fund to provide low-rate, long-term financing for more efficient and cleaner machinery and equipment in the textile, leather, and jute sectors. The fund has already disbursed over $22.8 million.
  • In 2014, the current Climate Fiscal Framework was adopted to ready the Bangladesh public finance system for efficient use of the national and international climate finance landscapes. It is key for establishing greater national ownership of climate finance, increasing the opportunity for climate resilient development, and using finance to mitigate emissions.

Contact

Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Bangladesh Secretariat
Dhaka, Bangladesh
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