In a unique, unprecedented move, Members of Parliament of
the National Parliament of Bangladesh submitted a signed memorandum at the
meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Power, Energy
& Mineral Resources. They requested its intervention to ensure that the
Ministry lays out an effective planning, budget and program for renewable
energy development in the country, in consonance with the Bangladesh Renewable
Energy Policy 2008 and the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority
(SREDA) Act 2012. The Parliamentary Standing Committee met on 22 August 2013,
under the chairmanship of M.P. Mr. Mohammad Shubid Ali Bhuiyan. On the request
of Climate Parliamentarians, SREDA was listed in the schedule agenda. The
Committee discussed various issues and suggestions given in the Memorandum, to
be taken forward to the Government.
On behalf of the Bangladesh Climate Parliament Group,
cross-party Parliamentarians also gave a detailed set of recommendations to the
Parliamentary Committee for strengthening and smooth running of SREDA. The
Memorandum was signed by Mr. Tanvir Shakil Joy, M.P. and Convener, Ms Roshan
Jahan Shathi and Mr. Anisul Islam Mondol, M.Ps and co-conveners of the
Bangladesh Climate Parliament Group. While presenting the Parliamentarians’
suggestions at the Standing Committee meeting, Mr. Tanvir Shakil Joy
highlighted the need to consider renewable energy for rural electrification,
climate change mitigation, employment and minimal social and environmental
costs. While the country has set high standards, by installation of two million
Solar Home Systems; for large scale systems, the Government has to plan well an
institutional mechanism, dedicated for promoting renewable energy under the
progressive renewable energy policy of 2008. Mr. Joy explained in detail about
the immediate and long-term tasks that should be taken up by the Government,
for the SREDA Act to be successful.
Since the past one year, Climate Parliament and UNDP have
been working consistently on the enactment and implementation of SREDA in the
country. A meeting was organized on ‘Renewable Energy and Climate Policy in
Bangladesh’ at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban (Bangladesh Parliament) on 7 November
2012. As recent as 4 July 2013, another meeting was organized at the Parliament
on the ‘Implementation of SREDA Act’, along with Climate Parliament MPs,
representatives of the Ministry, and experts. This meeting was also attended by
Mr. Mohammad Shubid Ali Bhuiyan, Chair of the Standing Committee on the
Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources. The meeting decided that the
Climate Parliament MPs will raise the issue of SREDA in the next meeting of the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral
Resources.
The SREDA Act was passed by the Bangladesh Government in
December 2012, to establish the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development
Authority as a separate entity in the power sector, for the development of
renewable energy across the country. The Authority will serve as the nodal
institution for identification, promotion, facilitation and overall
coordination of all national renewable energy and energy conservation programs.
However, the authority is yet to be established, even after six months of the
passage of the Act. It is critical that the government establishes an effective
SREDA – adequately empowered, technically equipped, financially strong and
operationally efficient – which will play the central role of driving energy
efficiency and renewable energy development in Bangladesh.
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