Staff Reporter:
Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Abdul Awal Mintoo yesterday stressed turning national climate policies and plans into coordinat-ed programs, quality pro-jects, appropriate financ-ing and bringing measur-able results.
He said yesterday’s de-velopment decisions would shape climate risks for decades to come. Every major in-vestment must therefore take the climate condi-tions of the relevant area into account, he said.
The environment minis-ter made the remarks while speaking as the chief guest at the opening ceremony of the two-day Bangladesh Climate De-velopment Partnership (BCDP) Knowledge Conference 2026 at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.
On the occasion, he launched the BCDP Web Portal. Through real-time project monitoring, the digital portal will help manage information on climate-related projects and investment, enhance transparency and im-prove processes for de-veloping domestic and international climate fi-nance pipelines.
In his speech, Mintoo said adaptation invest-ments often deliver sig-nificant public benefits even when they do not generate direct revenue.
Climate financing ar-rangements must reflect Bangladesh’s develop-ment priorities and fiscal capacity, he said, calling for private investment in clean energy and sustain-able infrastructure.
Emphasising the im-portance of drawing on local communities’ expe-rience in planning, the environment minister said women, young peo-ple, persons with disabil-ities and marginalised communities must have meaningful opportunities to participate in project design, implementation and monitoring.
Alongside effective insti-tutions, sound invest-ment decisions and transparent use of re-sources, Bangladesh would continue to call for international support and climate justice in addressing adaptation and climate-related loss and damage, he said.
Speaking as a special guest, State Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Sheikh Faridul Islam highlighted increasing coastal salini-ty, declining crop pro-duction and growing pressures on people’s lives and livelihoods caused by climate change.
He said the government was prioritizing nature-based solutions to ad-dress these challenges.
He also highlighted canal excavation and tree-planting programs, as well as the government’s emphasis on expanding the use of electric buses and solar power for low-carbon development.
The state minister sought active cooperation from partner organisations to make BCDP’s activities more dynamic and effec-tive.
Also speaking as a spe-cial guest, Dr Md Sai-mum Parvez, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Environ-ment, Forest and Climate Change, said Bangla-desh’s climate adaptation experience was a story of courage, innovation and collective action.
He called for sharing Bangladesh’s experience in early warning systems and community-based adaptation, and for trans-lating the conference discussions into concrete commitments, effective partnerships and practi-cal action.
ADB Executive Director Satya Srinivas Lolla, who represents Bangla-desh, Bhutan, India, Lao PDR, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, said im-plementing Bangladesh’s national climate plans required substantial in-vestment from both the public and private sec-tors.
The conference’s success would be determined by subsequent action and investment, he said.
He emphasised bringing together financing, tech-nical expertise, institu-tional capacity and part-nerships to help Bangla-desh move from plan-ning to implementation.
Discussions on the first day focused on climate resilience and low-carbon growth, the Na-tional Adaptation Plan and implementation of NDC 3.0.
Today, sessions will ad-dress energy transition, low-carbon transport, water resources manage-ment, climate-resilient agriculture and the prep-aration of investment-ready projects, among other topics.
The opening ceremony was chaired by Dr. Fahmida Khanam, Act-ing Secretary of the Min-istry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Mohammad Navid Shafiullah, Additional Secretary (Climate Change), delivered the welcome address, while Joint Secretary Munira Sultana moderated the event.
Organised by the Minis-try of Environment, For-est and Climate Change with support from the Asian Development Bank, the two-day con-ference brought together more than 500 policy-makers, development partners, experts, private sector representatives, academics and civil soci-ety representatives.
