The Climate Fiscal Framework (CFF) needs to be more citizen-centric to ensure that no one is left behind, environmentalists and economists have said.
The comments were made during a workshop on the CFF, organized by the Inclusive Budgeting and Financing for Climate Resilience (IBFCR) Project of the Finance Division and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) at the CIRDAP Auditorium in Dhaka on Thursday.
Since the establishment of the CFF, it has been providing necessary guidelines for tracking climate related expenditure, estimating long term financing to combat climate change, and elaborating on the role of government in managing climate finances. However, as the global landscape and that of Bangladesh has changed, the CFF needs to now be updated, the experts said.
Speaking as the chief guest, Comptroller and Auditor General Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury said identifying the origin points of climate change issues is not a simple task.
He added that one of the key issues in climate financing is prioritization, as resources are scarce.
“Climate financing is not only about acquiring necessary finances for climate action, but also about ensuring transparency and accountability in the usage of the funds,” the auditor general said.
UNDP Resident Representative Sudipto Mukerjee said: “The CFF has a very clear focus on marginalized people who may be left behind, as well as on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The inclusion of the private sector, NGOs, and government bodies in this process has ensured a truly whole-of-society approach.”
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He also said Bangladesh is just one of two countries whose proposals for climate financing were accepted by the Adaptation Fund this year.
The workshop was chaired by Finance Ministry Secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder, and IBFCR Project Manager Ranjit Kumar Chakraborty presented the key note paper.
Additional Secretary of the Finance Division and IBFCR National Project Director Ramendra Nath Biswas delivered the welcome speech.
The daylong workshop included two sessions. While the first session focused on the CFF, discussions at the second session centred on the Climate Inclusive Macro-Economic Framework.
General Economic Division Senior Secretary Dr Shamsul Alam was the chief guest at the second session, while Finance Division Joint Secretaries Shirajun Noor Chowdhury and Dr Altaf-ul-Alam, Policy Research Institute Executive Director Dr Ahsan H Mansur, and Finance Ministry Secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder were among those in attendance.
In 2010, the government adopted the Planning Commission’s Poverty-Environment-climate (PECM) project. Under this project, climate public expenditure and institutional review (CPEIR) was conducted in FY 2012. Based on the CPEIR recommendations, the government formulated the CFF in 2014.
