With the global climate crisis revealing some bitter truths about the old ways of generating power, ie burning fossil fuels, the conversation surrounding the adoption of cleaner sources of energy has reached something of a fever pitch in the past few years.
While conventional wisdom would excuse a country like Bangladesh -- one that has yet to even attain developing status -- for its continued reliance on fossil fuels, our incredibly climate-vulnerable nature that all but necessitates us to pivot towards renewable sources of energy sooner rather than later, especially in the context of the government’s commitment towards sustainable development.
Indeed, according to the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, converting Bangladesh's agricultural irrigation pumps to renewable energy has the potential to save roughly 5,000MW of electricity, while also revealing that initiatives are underway to install floating solar panels over ponds and other bodies of water for fish farming.
Agriculture is an incredibly important sector in Bangladesh as it has export implications as well, which means the adoption of cleaner sources of energy can pay a lot of dividends for the sector. But even generally speaking, pivoting to clean energy has clear benefits for us, which is why it is all the more disappointing that even now the share of green energy sources connected to the national grid still persists at a less-than significant level.
Renewable energy not only lowers carbon emissions but meaningful investment in the sector can also pave the way to increased employment, not to mention the many benefits it can have on public health.
There is no alternative to clean energy if Bangladesh wants to avoid being left in the darkness of the past.
