Climate fiscal framework on cards to coordinate use of funds

21 Jan, 2014

Syful Islam

The government is formulating a climate fiscal framework to coordinate spending in the climate change-related activities, official sources said.

The move is taken to ensure appropriate and effective use of funds in offsetting the impacts of climate change on Bangladesh, one of the countries most vulnerable to global warming.

Officials said presently a significant amount of money is being spent for different types of climate change-related projects. The government, non-government organisations, foreign sources, and even private households are also spending money in this connection.

They said since there is no coordination in the spending, repetition and duplication of projects is frequently occurring. Several bodies are embarking on the same types of projects, while many areas remain unattended.

Joint chief of the general economics division under the Planning Commission, Rafiqul Islam, told the FE that funds were being spent in a scattered way for offsetting the impacts of climate change.

"In the fiscal budget, funds are being allocated for climate change-related projects for almost all the ministries. There is no coordination in spending. We are formulating the climate fiscal framework to bring about coordination between them," he said.

Once the framework is formulated and properly followed, agencies concerned would be able to know easily about how many and what types of projects are in place and how much money is involved with them, Mr Islam said.

He said countries like Cambodia and Indonesia have formulated climate fiscal frameworks.

Mr Islam also said changes have been brought to the format of development project proposal (DPP), in which the issue of climate change has been incorporated.

"While preparing a DPP for a project, it has to be mentioned from now on if any climate change-related components are there or not. That will help in keeping track on how much money is being spent in what types of climate change-related projects," he said.

The climate fiscal framework is being formulated under a project titled 'Poverty, Environment and Climate Mainstreaming,' funded by the United Nations Development Programme.

Prof Dr Rezai Karim Khondker of Dhaka School of Economics, the team leader of the climate fiscal framework study, told the FE Monday that there was no calculation on how much money was being spent and from which sources.

The framework aims at coordination of the climate change-related spending, he said.

Mr Khondker said a large amount of money was needed to combat the impacts of climate change on Bangladesh, a low-lying country.

The framework will keep a tally of the sources of funds and also of where those are being spent for what purpose, he added.

Presently, Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF) and Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) are funding major climate change-related projects.

The BCCRF is a financing mechanism operated by the Government of Bangladesh (GoB), development partners and the World Bank to address the impacts of climate change. On the other hand, BCCTF is being solely financed by the GoB from public exchequer to carry out activities to offset the impacts of climate change.