Bangladesh needs $1.71bn annual investment to meet renewable energy target: CPD

Business Desk :
G7 countries can help Bangladesh in meeting its objective of 40% renewable energy by 2041 by giving financial assistance to enable a seamless energy transition, as Bangladesh requires $1.53 billion to $1.71 billion in annual investment from 2024 to 2041.
According to the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), what Bangladesh received from national and foreign sources in the renewable energy sector from 2016 to 2023 ($6.71 billion) was insufficient.
CPD discussed their findings and recommendations ahead of the 49th G7 Summit, which will be held in Japan from May 19-21, at a dialogue titled “G7 Summit in 2023: Call for Global Initiatives for Ending Support for Fossil Fuels and Accelerating the Transition to Renewable Energy” on Wednesday.
The Keynote Presentation was delivered by Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director at CPD.
A major demand raised by international civil societies is to develop a roadmap to operationalise the G7 leaders’ commitment to end government support for all fossil fuels, he stated in his presentation.
He added saying: “few of the G7 goals and commitments for 2023 are genuine concrete measures; instead, the majority are still highly broad-based, generalized, and vague goals, objectives, and future promises, but G7s can help Bangladesh achieve the goal of 40% renewable by 2041 through providing financial assistance to ensure a smooth energy transition.”
He also mentioned that the transition should not jeopardize energy security by relying on bilateral and international support.
Bangladesh has already received $6.71 billion from national and international sources in the renewable energy sector from 2016 to 2022 (Change Initiative, 2023), which is insufficient. A yearly investment of $1.53 billion to $1.71 billion is necessary to attain the 40% renewable energy target in total generation capacity (IEEFA, 2023).
Nonclean policy initiatives are highly discouraged as they are deviating from the renewable energy goal of Bangladesh and other developing nations and creating confusion. G7 countries should not advocate these expensive nonclean technologies and should be phased out deploying them in the LDCs, developing countries and V20s, especially in Bangladesh.