Bangladesh must have transparent system of calculating GHG emissions: experts

Climate experts and environmentalists at a national workshop said Bangladesh must have a definite and transparent system of calculating greenhouse gas emissions.

"Realistic emission data is critical to achieve Net Zero Target by 2050. To do so, Bangladesh needs to revisit the logical framework approach (LFA) based on monitoring data and shift toward the theory of change," Dr Ainun Nishat, Professor Emeritus and Advisor of C3ER at BRAC University told the workshop.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) jointly organised the workshop under the 'Climate Promise - From Pledge to Impact' project.

The National Workshop on 'Transition to Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF): The Way Forward for Bangladesh' was held at Bangabandhu Military Museum in Dhaka, a UNDP press release said.

The key objective of the workshop was to engage sectoral experts and relevant ministries and line agencies in a dialogue to explore opportunities, identify human and institutional capacity needs enhancement to establish transparent GHG accounting and tracking mechanism.

Welcoming the participants, UNDP Programme Specialist Arif Faisal said: "Ensuring transparency in GHG inventory is crucial for upholding environmental integrity within the Paris Agreement. Article 13 of the Paris Agreement shapes the formation of the ETF, intending to foster mutual trust and confidence as well as enhancing effective implementation."

UNDP will continue to provide catalytic support to the government to establish a robust institutional arrangement for advancing ETF, he added.

Md Mahmud Hossain, Deputy Director of the Department of Environment (DoE), in his presentation said: "Under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement, establishing an ETF is critically important for Bangladesh.

In this regard, the government has implemented the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency project."

He said this project aims to strengthen institutional and human capacities to meet the requirements of the ETF and track progress in the priority actions identified in Bangladesh's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).

In his keynote presentation on 'ETF: Global and National Transparency Perspective and Insight', Executive Director of Nature Conservation Management (NACOM) Dr SM Munjurul Hannan Khan said Bangladesh will benefit both nationally and internationally through ETF and nationally it will help to gain political acceptance, create scope for an informed policy process, build the capacity in reporting and raise awareness.

"Internationally it will build trust, help meet international obligations, support ambition enhancement, and prioritise support.

Talking about the institutional arrangements of ETF," he said, adding that the framework will consist of five components including government ministries, academic institutions, and the private sector.

Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, Economist, and Chairman of Dhaka School of Economics (DSE), moderated the open discussion.

To move forward, Bangladesh will establish a fully functionalized measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system, an enhanced institutionalisation arrangement, and implement the ETF roadmap.

A consortium, led by Nature Conservation Management (NACOM), in partnership with the Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research (C3ER), BRAC University, and the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) is facilitating the implementation.