Meet needs with fossil-fuel free energy, visiting German MP tell BD

The visiting Member of the German Parliament and Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Barbel Kofler said there will be no fossil future, Bangladesh's challenge of growing need for energy must be met with renewable and fossil-fuel free energy.
 "As far as our environment is concerned, let me be totally clear, there will be no fossil future. The impact of climate change can be felt worldwide now, especially in Bangladesh," she told the Daily Observer on Sunday in an interview on the sidelines of a seminar at Hotel Renaissance at Gulshan in Dhaka.
Dr Barbel Kofler now in Dhaka from October 28 to November 2 will hold meetings with ministers and high officials of the government as well as different stakeholders, visit projects that are supported by the German government and attend a 50-year 'German-Bangladesh Development Cooperation' event arranged by the German Embassy in Dhaka.
"All these things will be settled at the meeting in Berlin in December.  
Regarding our commitments, our prime focus is now on the environment as far as the energy issue is concerned. Government negotiators of both the sides will discuss future cooperation and possible further commitments on December 7 and 8 in Berlin," the German State Minister said.
 She said renewable energy is expensive compared to the traditional ones, and Bangladesh has land constraints but it is also a fact that the cost of renewable energy is coming down gradually with the new technology-inventions are coming up so we are hopeful to facilitate Bangladesh in this regard, she said adding that the rising sea level threatens to leave one-fifth of the country permanently under water. As a result, 30 million people will become internally displaced by 2050 in Bangladesh. In June, large sections of Sylhet were flooded by heavy rains, leaving a number of people dead and many homeless�.these issues should not be left from any discussion, she added.
She said Germany was the first country in Europe to recognize Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1972. But the foundation for the successful development cooperation between Bangladesh and Germany was laid in the 1970s. A devastating cyclone was followed by a war of independence which claimed countless lives, and then by a famine that affected two-thirds of the people. At the time, Germany assisted Bangladesh by providing 38,000 tonnes of wheat and further material aid, as well as an agricultural loan to restore food security for the people, currently, the volume of this portfolio and additional development measures to tackle especially the Rohingya crisis and support host communities (amounting to €166 million) is about €1.1 billion. Within this portfolio, the major share of €680 million is for activities related to climate change (adaptation and mitigation) as well as energy, she added.
Mentioning the new area of energy cooperation, the German State Minister said, "We are planning to establish a Climate and Development Partnership between our two countries."
Barbel Kofler is a member of the IG BCE (Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union, IG Metall, and GEW (Union of Persons Employed in Education and Science). The Bavarian Member of the German Parliament is a trained bank clerk, studied computer science at Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences and did a doctorate in linguistics at Salzburg University. After completing her PhD, Barbel Kofler worked in Moscow as a lecturer at a college for those engaging in civilian service. This is the second visit of the Parliamentary State Secretary Dr Kofler to Bangladesh.
"A greater effort is needed. Only by working together the international community will succeed in limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees - and the industrialized countries have a special responsibility in this regard. Germany is living up to its responsibility. We are making significant contributions to international climate finance and supporting the massive expansion of renewable energy generation worldwide," she added.
One example of our successful cooperation on climate and energy is the Green Energy Transition, a Team Europe Initiative. Germany's contribution to this involves, for example, replacing diesel irrigation pumps by photovoltaic and biogas systems, and setting up rooftop installations at factories to provide off-grid power.
"The objective of this transformation is, for one thing, to expand renewable energy generation and, for another, to reduce the use of fossil fuels. Our two countries are already making good progress on this, but they need to continue to eliminate existing barriers," she said.
In order to reach our climate goals and reduce real energy costs on a sustained basis, courageous decisions are needed - for instance to turn existing subsidies for fossil fuels into incentives for the installation of renewable energy systems; to eliminate existing import tariffs and taxes on photovoltaic systems; and to create a legal framework for feeding power into the grid.
 'In order to put the progress made in Bangladesh on a lasting basis, we should intensify our efforts in the areas of energy security, fair working conditions, and strengthening civil society,' she further said.
Dr B�rbel Kofler has been a Member of the German Parliament (Bundestag) since 2004 and was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development on December 8 in 2021. From March 2016 to December 2021 she was the Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid. In the Bundestag's 19th electoral term she served on the Committee of Foreign Affairs and was an executive committee member of the SPD parliamentary group.  
"I am confident that we will be able to successfully meet current and future challenges - as we have done in the last 50 years. I am glad that Bangladesh is a partner for Germany which is fully committed to the principles of the UN Charter and which is working for the peaceful coexistence of all nations and for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The German Development Cooperation with Bangladesh is focusing on intervention in technical and vocational education and training, socially and environmentally sound supply chains, trade and sustainable infrastructure, renewable energy and energy efficiency, sustainable urban development (mobility, circular economy and waste management), and biodiversity," Dr B�rbel Kofler remarked.