Foreign minister presents Bangladesh’s solar energy ambition at ISA ministerial meeting

Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali has said that Bangladesh is likely to emerge as one of the largest solar nations globally as the country’s “focus on solar energy is about realising vision-2021”.

He said the government had “quietly” been making solar energy available to people over the past seven years.

Ali was speaking at the ministerial meeting of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) at the UN headquarters in New York on Thursday.

He said that at present over six million solar systems illuminated households in remote parts of rural Bangladesh.

“In the process, the lives and livelihoods of over fifteen million poor people in off-grid areas of Bangladesh are changing,” he said.

“Focus on solar energy is also about realising Bangladesh’s Vision 2021 – that is, to graduate as a Middle Income Country and ensuring Sustainable Energy for All”.

Ministers and delegates from a number of countries, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya, Maldives, Namibia, Nigeria, Peru, Tuvalu, Uganda, the US, Vietnam, Zambia, India and France gathered to mark a new stage in the formation of the ISA announced last year on Nov 30.

President of COP21 and French Minister for Environment, Energy and the Sea Ségolène Royal and India’s Minister of Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal co-chaired the event on the sidelines of the Paris Agreement signing.

The foreign minister said Bangladesh was “keen” on the ISA. “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina looks at it also as part of her commitment to combat global climate change,” he said.

“We believe that our Alliance will serve as a platform for meeting the huge ‘energy inequality’ that exists and also will be able to increase the share of renewables in our energy mix.

“Through the Alliance, we can collaborate to plough substantial amount of investment that is required for development and transfer of solar technology,” he said.

The foreign minister also announced that Bangladesh would join the upcoming two programmes related to the ISA -- “Affordable finance at scale” and “Scaling solar applications for agricultural use”.

Earlier, before the event got underway, India’s Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy Minister met the foreign minister.

They exchanged views on existing bilateral relations between the countries.

Both the Ministers agreed that cooperation between Bangladesh and India in power and energy sector had seen “a huge increase” recently and this would play “a big role” in strengthening bilateral relations.