Bangladesh sets up climate change fund

Bangladesh has constituted a trust fund with its own finance for facing the risks of climate change without waiting for foreign assistance.“Bangladesh is facing the impact of climate change but we will no more look for foreign assistance and the government has already formed a trust fund to face the situation,” Environment and Forest Minister Anwar Hossain Manju said at the opening of the green convention and exhibition at Bangabandhu International Convention Centre (BCCI) in Dhaka.Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund Ltd (BIFFL), a government-owned non-banking financial institution, organised the event to create awareness about the adverse impact of chimney-based brick kiln pollution and promote environment friendly and energy saving technologies in the country.Manju said the government has been working to create awareness among the people to prevent environment pollution. “Many factories and brick manufacturers are not complying with government’s rules and regulations,” he said, adding that the government is encouraging people in industrial sector to comply with the rules and regulation through BIFFL.BFFL director and secretary of economic relations division Kazi Shafiqul Azam chaired the opening session while Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Fazle Kabir, World Bank’s country director Qimiao Fan, alternative executive director to Asian Development Bank (ADB) Mahbub Ahmed, Chinese embassy commercial councillor Li Guangjun and Bashundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, among others, spoke on the occasion.BB Governor Kabir said banks have been given necessary instruction not to give loans to factories which are not complying with the government’s rules and regulations for saving the environment from pollution. Side by side, banks have been asked to spend 10% of their funds kept for corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes. World Bank’s country director Qimiao Fan said the coastal belt of Bangladesh is facing the risk of climate change and the World Bank has a plan to spend $2bn in the next three years for facing this risk.