The government plans to take up the Country Investment Plan (CIP) for environmental, forestry and climate change sectors in order to initiate development measures in an integrated way for the best output, Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed, secretary in-charge of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, said yesterday.
“The country has many policies on the issue but the enforcing agencies often feel there lies gap in their implementation,” he said, adding that introducing an integration plan such as CIP could address these gaps.
He said this during a workshop on CIP on Environment, Forestry and Climate Change organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and held at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.
Janina Jaruzelski, USAID mission director in Bangladesh, said CIP is a valuable roadmap that will coordinate all programmes in Bangladesh that protect the environment, including programmes focusing on preventing pollution, developing clean and renewable energy, or addressing the emerging threat of climate change.
Bangladesh sits at the forefront of countries that will be affected by climate change. It ranks first on the 2014 Climate Vulnerability Index and experts believe by 2025, the country will have suffered more from climate change than any other country.
“The country has to take adaptive measures in an integrated manner in order to tackle the negative impacts of global warming such as rise in sea level, salinity intrusion, drought, erratic rainfall and gradually increasing tidal surge,” the secretary said, adding that CIP could be the best tool to accommodate the issue in a calculative way.
USAID Mission Director Janina added: “The plan will also align efforts and investments made by the government, donors and non-governmental organisations to maximise resources, in turn maximising the positive impact of programmes that protect the country and its people.”