Environmentalists on Thursday demanded the proper management of the climate change trust fund.
They sent letters to the principal secretary to the prime minister and the governor of Bangladesh Bank in this regard, said a press release.
The following points were mentioned in the letter sent:
Bangladesh is one of the countries affected by global climate change. According to the Climate Vulnerable Index, Bangladesh ranked seventh among 192 vulnerable countries in the world. The impact of climate change has become very clear in Bangladesh over the last two decades.
The Global Climate Index-2021 report demonstrated that 185 climate change-related major disasters have hit Bangladesh in the last 20 years. These include disasters like floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and landslides. Some 11, 450 people lost their lives. The economic loss has been estimated at USD372 crore billion.
Bangladesh established the Climate Change Trust Fund in FY2009-10 to build capacity at the local level and among local communities due to climate change risks. Every year, part of the national budget is deposited in this fund and some projects of public interest are implemented from this fund at the public and private levels, which help the population at risk of climate change.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change deposited Tk508 crore of climate funds in Farmers Bank (now Padma Bank) in 2015. This FDR money was supposed to be returned to the climate trust fund in 2016, but only Tk78 crore has come to this fund in seven years.
As a result, the climate fund is owed Tk827 crore at an annual rate of 9% until 2020, reads the statement.
This means that climate change money that should have been used to protect people at risk from climate change is not being used.
It should be noted that in 2015, a special inspection of Bangladesh Bank revealed gross violations of banking regulations by Farmers Bank (now Padma Bank). The central bank also found the involvement of former directors of Farmers Bank in sanctioning loans. In this case, there is concern about the possibility of the FDR money being returned to the Climate Fund as interest. This money, which could have protected the endangered population, is not of any use to the people due to the arbitrary decisions of the relevant government ministries.
The signatories of the letter demanded that the people's tax money should be guaranteed and the people who are at risk of climate change should be protected through the climate fund.