Concerning government agencies are working to get oversees climate funds as ‘grants’ instead of loans to help mitigate the impact of climate change effect, said a senior government official on Sunday.
“There are complexities in taking fund as loan. It is better for the government to deal with the climate change issues with its own funds instead of taking loan from donors,” said Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change S.M Munjurul Hannan Khan.
So the government is giving preference in taking climate funds as grants rather than loan, he added.
He said it while addressing a workshop on ‘Enhancing adaptive capacities of coastal communities, especially women, to cope with climate change induced salinity’.
The event, jointly organised by Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), was held at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) auditorium.
Additional Secretary, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Sheikh Rafiqul Islam chaired the event while Secretary, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Kamrun Nahar spoke at the workshop as the chief guest and UNDP’s Resident Representative Sudipto Mukerjee spoke as the special guest.
Despite emitting less carbon dioxide, Bangladesh is the worst sufferer of the climate change which is mostly caused by the developed countries, speakers added.
Officials in the government also pointed that due to the climate change, the mangrove forest around the coastal areas are declining which is a threat to protect the coastal livelihood and livestock.
The ministry and UNDP is implementing a six-year long project in Satkhira and Khulna districts benefitting almost 700,000 million people.
The Ministry provided $8.0 million and GCF are providing the rest as a co-financer to plan, implement, and manage climate-resilient solutions, according to the project.
The project will mostly cover women and adolescent girls for climate resilient solutions, financed by the Green Climate Fund, world's largest multilateral fund for climate change action.
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