BD to get $800m from GCF to cut 20pc carbon emission by 2030

Bangladesh will get around US$ 800 million from Green Climate Fund (GCF) to facilitate installation of energy efficiency and conservation (EE&C) equipment in the industrial and residential sector to cut carbon emission and trim down energy consumption by 20 per cent by 2030.
Siddique Zobair, member for energy efficiency and conservation at the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA), told this to the Daily Observer on Saturday.
"We received firm commitment from JICA for $200 million, ADB has a commitment to provide $150 million, GCF, a global lender, will give $375 million by July 2020�however, we are now working on JICA's $100 million fund to develop the policy strategy in this regard," Zobair said.
It has been observed that the access to financing for EE&C cost is still limited as the government is yet to allocate specific budget for this purpose, however, private or international development partners' funding is now the major sources to achieve the target.
"Yes, Bangladesh Bank (BB) has provide such a loan, but Bank's data shows that the currently available loan interest rate for industry is within the range of 11 to 18 per cent, while consumer credit is around 12 to 18.5 per cent, though we are not able to provide the loan at 4 per cent interest rate," the SREDA official said.
Taking into considerations the above circumstances, the JICA-EEF Project is expected to contribute to the penetration of EE&C equipment through low interest loan. This measure, under low financial burden for the government, enables low interest long-term financial support for end users of the equipment, he added.
Bangladesh need around $8 billion in investment to cut 20 per cent primary energy consumption per GDP by 2030, compared to that of 2013 level through installing the required equipment in the industrial and residential sector, according to SREDA.
According to the government's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Master Plan up to 2030, Bangladesh's target is to achieve a 20 per cent reduction of primary energy consumption per GDP by 2030, compared to that of 2013 level.
"Nowadays energy    efficiency is being treated as first fuel, meaning if we can consume two units less energy, we will not need to produce that two units and if we fail to follow the energy saving path remaining on the BAU (Business as Usual) case, the energy saving of 7,482 GWh will not be realized and GOB would have to additionally invest on the construction of power station which is around 2,000 MW of electricity," he said.
Industrial and residential sectors are being consuming about 80 per cent of all the energies in Bangladesh, off it the industrial sector accounts for 47.8 per cent of the energy consumption and the residential sector 30 per cent, according to the SREDA study report.
 "To facilitate installation of energy efficiency and conservation equipment in Bangladesh as well as supporting the promotion of policy in energy efficiency and conservation by the government by extending concessional loans and other support, thereby securing the balance between energy supply and demand and contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas," he added.
The subject of the concessional loans will have three components, which are (i) industry commercial sector component (ii) building sector component and home appliances component These components were identified as the priority areas as the subject of low interest loan in the EE&C Master Plan (M/P), from the viewpoints of effectiveness and feasibility, he said.