Civil society representatives on Tuesday placed a 12-point citizen manifesto to ensure that political parties commit to a just transition in energy and power sector ahead of the 12th national election, scheduled to be held in February next year.
Bangladesh Working Group on Ecology and Development organised a press conference in this regard at the Dhaka Reporters鈥� Unity auditorium, in association with Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, Bangladesh Institute for Labour Studies, Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network, Ethical Trade Initiative, Lawyers for Energy, Environment and Development, Manusher Jonno Foundation and REGlobal.
Monower Mostafa, networking adviser of CLEAN, who read out the demands, said that although electricity had reached 99.25 per cent of households, the country was facing major financial losses, environmental degradation and public health risks due to long-standing irrational dependence on fossil fuels, non-transparent contracts and unrealistic master plans.聽
He said that Bangladesh鈥檚 carbon emissions had doubled from 146.8 million tonnes in 2008 to 281.4 million tonnes, resulting in the country鈥檚 air quality becoming one of the most hazardous in the world.
BWGED member secretary Hasan Mehedi said that in the last 16 years, private power companies had taken Tk 1.72 trillion in capacity charges, while the Power Development Board incurred losses of Tk 2.53 trillion, forcing the government to pay Tk 2.36 trillion in subsidies.
The 12-point citizen manifesto includes formulating a national energy policy to address climate change impacts, ensure economic development, and strengthen energy security, preventing corruption in the power and energy sector, amending the Public Procurement Act and its regulations to bring all types of power purchase agreements and implementation agreements under the Right to Information Act, taking strict action against those involved in corruption, and recovering siphoned-off funds from the power sector.
Other demands include gradually reducing subsidies on fossil fuels, especially coal, gas and fuel oil, to encourage industries, businesses, and households to shift to affordable renewable energy, ensuring the mandatory use of at least 30 per cent renewable energy by 2030 and 40 per cent by 2041 in all industries, and providing easy loans and tax incentives to introduce renewable energy in the industrial sector.
The demands also include not granting approval for the construction of any new fossil-fuel-based power plant, not approving any new LNG terminals, integrating the targets of 30 per cent renewable energy by 2030, 40 per cent by 2041, and 100 per cent by 2050 into all national policies, sectoral plans, and five-year plans, and providing short-term renewable energy training and accessible bank loans for unemployed youth, especially women, marginalised groups, indigenous peoples and workers, to create two million new jobs in the sector.
