For any developing nation, it is impossible to skirt the issue of sustainability anymore. While there are genuine reasons why Bangladesh, in its current stage, would be unable to be able to keep up with more well-off nations in terms of green practices, our country is still well behind even by our own standards.
That the country’s power generation share in terms of renewable energy saw no increase even after the production cost of renewable energy had decreased drastically is testament to our failure in greening up. The world has been undergoing a collective push to pivot towards green energy generation for the past few decades, and if we don’t keep up, we will surely fall behind.
Bangladesh’s share of green energy sources that are connected to the national grid still persists below 1%. This is especially problematic when we consider that Bangladesh is one of the more at-risk countries when it comes to dealing with the repercussions of climate change. In recent years, the government has also continued its focus on the promotion of fossil fuel-based power generation methods.
Consequently, the authorities have proposed to raise the per-unit electricity tariff by 65.56% from the existing rate of TK 5.17, arguing that it would otherwise face a tremendous loss that would hamper operations.
Bangladesh has made great strides when it comes to making the availability of electricity more equitable for the population, but the cost of electricity has to be equitable as well. We also have to be careful that we do not bring about our own doom by contributing to climate change. It is said that the country is capable of generating 30,000MW of electricity from renewable sources, while the authorities only aimed to generate 2,800MW by 2021.
We have unprecedented levels of untapped potential when it comes to green energy generation. To not make good on that potential is not just a shortcoming, at this stage it is a moral failing.
The administration needs to reevaluate its priority in this sector. We need to steadfastly picot away from the use of fossil fuels for energy generation and start incorporating green practices into each and every facet of this sector.
