The government stakeholders suggested environmental statistics to become mandatory and urgent for understanding and monitoring the progress of green growth.
They also spoke for environment and development correlation as it is needed for the progress of Sustainable Development Goals, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Eight Five Year Plan.
The experts made the observations at a workshop titled “Environmental Statistics and GIS Integration for Natural Resource (Capital) Accounts to Measure Green Growth in Bangladesh” jointly organised by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and the World Bank.
The event was held on September 16-19.
The workshop explores a range of evolving technologies for collecting more and improved environmental data to support natural resource (capital) accounting and nature-smart policymaking for green growth in Bangladesh.
Shahnaz Arefin, secretary, Statistics and Informatics Division, Ministry of Planning attended the workshop as the Chief Guest and said environmental degradation is a burning issue, but the severity and impact is not yet well measured.
“We need accurate data to give us a better understanding of where we will be tomorrow, especially in the context of climate change and environmental degradation,” Arefin added.
Md. Rafiqul Islam, project director of the Strengthening Environment, Climate Change and Disaster Statistics (ECDS) Project, BBS said, we have to plan how BBS can successfully institutionalise and operationalise natural resource (capital) accounting for measuring green growth.
The workshop delves into the institutional data infrastructure needed to support the measurement and implementation of green growth
“Investments need to be green, resilient and inclusive. Green growth for Bangladesh includes the sustainable use of natural resources and low emissions policies. The challenge is to approach green growth through market-based solutions. And sound data is needed to devise these solutions,” said Eun Joo Allison Yi, senior environmental specialist, World Bank Group.
Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur, executive director, Bangladesh Policy Research Institute (PRI) said unless there is a strong economic rationale behind actions, people are unlikely to change. Green growth is no different – we need to understand its economic imperative and make strides.
