Thursday, 16 August 2012

Turmoil with regard to Bangladesh climate funds investments

Bangladesh, being one of the world’s most vulnerable deltas with regards to sea level rise and climate change, has been positioning itself as a ‘climate victim’. At the same time it also takes a pro-active role in investing in climate change adaptation and on his own has established the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) of more than $ 300 million. Next to that, the international community (notably DFID, USAID and the European Commission) have established the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilient Fund (BCCRF) of about $ 170 million. The latter funds is management by the Worldbank.

From the beginning there has been quite a lot of discussion as to how to invest the national BCCTF (in which projects or activities, but also via which channels). Lately, tensions rose as earlier promises from the Bangladeshi government, to distribute the funds via existing NGO’s, is being delayed. It led to a massive protest from the NGO community in Bangladesh.

At the same time, the first stand-alone project from the BCCRF funds has been signed recently and will invest $ 12.5 million in building climate resilient communities. We expect a phone call soon!

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