Category: Energy and Power

The European Union (EU) has launched the expanded Team Europe Initiative on Climate and Energy in Bangladesh, aiming to strengthen climate mitigation- especially in the energy sector-and climate adaptation, officials said.

EU Ambassador Michael Miller at an event recently urged Bangladesh to integrate decarbonization and climate resilience into its public policies, highlighting the vital role of private sector investment alongside public financing.

Ambassador Miller set out that the European Union, EU Member States, European financing institutions, Norway and Switzerland, working as Team Europe and hand in hand with Bangladesh, contribute more than EUR 3.7 billion (or around 525 billion taka), addressing the energy sector modernization (energy efficiency, renewable energy and grid updating), climate mitigation and also climate adaptation (climate resilient livelihoods and water management, including clean drinking water).

The Ambassador said the European Union is unwavering in its support of the Paris Agreement.

Through the European Green Deal, driving transition to a netzero economy by 2050, the EU has turned away from fossil fuels, embracing decarbonization and clean technology, decoupling economic growth from emissions growth.

Country’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) import financing is set to get an impetus from this month (November) with the availability of fiscal support from World Bank (WB).

The WB’s US$350 million support under its Energy Sector Security Enhancement Project (ESSEP), aimed at improving Bangladesh’s gas supply security facilitating affordable financing for LNG imports, is expected to get rolling from this month, said a Petrobangla official. ‘We are now carrying out paper works with the selected banks to facilitate LNG imports, secured by a repayment guarantee from the WB,’ said the senior official of state-run Petrobangla.

The step aims to safeguard Bangladesh’s future energy supplies and ease pressure on foreign exchange reserves, he mentioned.

The World Bank board approved the project in late June, which will leverage an International Development Association (IDA) guarantee to mobilize up to $2.1 billion in private capital over the next seven years to support LNG imports.

A massive fire broke out at the switching control room of the Rural Electrification Board in Fenchuganj, Sylhet, leaving five surrounding upazilas without power.

The fire started around midnight on October 16 at the control room located in the Palbari area of Fenchuganj upazila. Firefighters rushed to the scene and brought the blaze under control, but key electrical equipment was destroyed.

Shamsul Islam, Assistant General Manager (AGM) of the Fenchuganj Rural Electrification Area Office, said that although the fire has been extinguished, many essential components of the control room were burned. ‘As a result, power supply to parts of Fenchuganj, Osmaninagar, Rajnagar, Golapganj, and Balaganj upazilas remains disrupted,’ he said.

BP PLC said recently it has made 11 oil and gas discoveries this year, the latest being Volans offshore Namibia in the Orange Basin.

Operator Rhino Resources Ltd announced October 1 a ‘high liquid-yield gas condensate discovery’ in the Volans-1X well in Block 2914A. ‘The well found 26m of net pay in rich gas condensatebearing reservoirs, with the reservoir showing excellent quality petrophysical properties and no observed water contact’, Rhino said in a press release. ‘Hot shot laboratory analysis on two samples (at the top and base of the reservoir interval) showed a high condensate to gas ratio (CGR) of >140 and a liquid density of around 40° API gravity. ‘Hydrocarbon samples and sidewall cores were collected through intensive wireline logging operations. Laboratory studies will continue to be conducted on the rest of the fluid samples, side wall cores and cuttings collected during the campaign’.

Bangladesh’s solar ambitions seem to be losing steam as 17 recently proposed solar-power plants, each offering reduced tariffs ever, have been left waiting for approval while some previously contracted ones lie in limbo.

Sources say the ‘bureaucratic dithering’ is frustrating sponsors, foreign investors and energy experts alike, as the current push – locally and globally – is for transition to clean, renewable energy to save the planet from disasters of global warming.

The fresh projects could have marked a breakthrough in the nation’s transition to clean energy, but insiders alleged Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) authorities were dragging their feet, even as the government pledges to boost renewables generation under its new Renewable Energy Policy 2025. Unless the evaluations move forward soon, the country risks missing out on affordable, homegrown solar power, and with it, leaving its 2030 renewable-energy goals cloaked in uncertainty.

Officials and project sponsors claim the state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has ‘intentionally’ slowed down the evaluation process for these solar plants, despite the offering of significantly lower tariff rates than previous ones.

Bidders for the new projects proposed tariffs ranging from 7.89 to 9.06 US cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), much lower than the bids approved during the previous Awami League government.

In 2024, the EU imported pound 11.1 billion worth of solar panels, pound 2.9 billion of liquid biofuels, and pound 0.5 billion worth of wind turbines from extra-EU countries, totaling almost pound 14.6 billion in imports of green energy products.

The value of imported solar panels decreased by 43% compared with 2023 due to a drop in prices, while the total weight of these imports increased by a modest 2%. Liquid biofuel imports also recorded a 25% drop in value.

On the other hand, imports of wind turbines not only saw a 102% rise in value but also registered a 113% increase in the imported weight. For illustration, in 2024 the EU imported 32 373 wind turbines, 9 072 more than in 2023. When it comes to exports, in 2024, the EU exported pound 0.7 billion worth of solar panels, pound 1.8 billion in liquid biofuels, and pound 2.8 billion in wind turbines. Unlike solar panels and liquid biofuels, wind turbines exports significantly exceeded import values.

Oil and gas companies have increasingly come under legal attack over their role in contributing to global warming. Yet, unlike other industries that face tougher regulations, they have not abandoned their climate marketing claims.

It’s a strategy rolled out since the early 2000s, in the wake of the Kyoto Protocol, which aimed to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

As a result, firms largely dropped their denial of climate change and promoted themselves as essential players in the energy transition. More recently, they have extolled investments in carbon capture, biofuels, solar energy and hydrogen power.

But for critics, the claims obscure the reality that drilling for oil and gas continues unabated. ‘They’re giving false reassurance, like: Don’t worry, we don’t need to change anything,’ said Benjamin Franta, a professor of climate litigation at Oxford University. ‘Greenwashing is just as important as climate denial, and in some ways it’s even more important because it’s the more dominant form of false reassurance,’ he adds.

The increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere last year was the highest ever recorded, the United Nations said recently, calling for urgent action to slash emissions. Levels of the three main greenhouse gases – the climate-warming CO2, methane and nitrous oxide — all increased yet again in 2024, with each setting new record highs, the UN’s weather and climate agency said.

The World Meteorological Organization said the increase in CO2 levels in the atmosphere from 2023 to 2024 marked the biggest oneyear jump since records began in 1957.

The report, which comes ahead of the November 10-21 COP30 UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil, focused exclusively on concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

A separate UN report, out next month, will detail shifts in emissions of the gases, but those numbers are also expected to rise, as they have every year with the world continuing to burn more oil, gas and coal.

This defies commitments made under the 2015 Paris Agreement to cap global warming at ‘well below’ 2C above average levels measured between 1850 and 1900 — and 1.5C if possible.

Investing in climate adaptation and resilience is not a cost; it is a powerful economic strategy that can generate trillions in global economic gains, create millions of jobs, and safeguard vulnerable countries like Bangladesh, according to a report released recently.

The report, ‘Returns on Resilience: Investing in Adaptation to Drive Prosperity, Growth and Competitiveness, was unveiled by a consortium of 20 organizations led by the international group Systemiq during the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C.

It finds that every dollar invested in adaptation can yield returns equivalent to ten dollars. For countries like Bangladesh, strategic investment in climate resilience and adaptation now could protect the economy from future losses.

The analysis estimates that climate resilience investment could create 28 million new jobs across developing countries by 2035.

At the same time, the global adaptation market is projected to reach $1.3 trillion annually by 2030. Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, ‘Investing in climate resilience means protecting people and their livelihoods in the face of storms, heatwaves, and floods.

It is also an urgent economic imperative: building resilience ensures that hardwon development gains are not destroyed.

This is a call to world leaders to make resilience and adaptation the investment agenda of our time.’

An inception workshop on the research project titled ‘Strengthening Advanced Education and Research on Farming System Dynamism and Climate Resilience Towards Sustainable and Improved Farm Productivity’ was held at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) on 11 October 2025. Department of Agronomy organized the event at conference hall of the Faculty of Agriculture, under the Academic Transformation Fund (ATF) of the Higher Education Acceleration and Transformation (HEAT) Project, supported by the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh.

BAU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr.

A.K. Fazlul Haque Bhuiyan attended the workshop as chief guest, which was chaired by Prof. Dr.

Ahmed Khairul Hasan, head, Department of Agronomy. Dr. Dia Sanou, deputy FAO representative in Bangladesh; Prof. Dr. G.M. Mujibar Rahman, dean, Faculty of Agriculture; and Prof. Dr. Mohammad Musharraf Uddin Bhuiyan, director, planning and development and head, ATF Secretariat, were present as special guests.