Experts at a conference said that the world economy is now gradually embracing green growth as a cardinal principle of our survival.
The stressed encouraging environmentally sustainable businesses through the prudent use of financial instruments to promote green transformation.
Bangladesh Instituteof Bank Management (BIBM) organised the conference on sustainable banking and finance at the BIBM conference hall.
Sharifa Khan, Secretary, ERD attended the conference as the chief guest with the Director General, BIBM, Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman in the chair.
Kazi Sayedur Rahman, Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank, Fazle Kabir, Emeritus Fellow of BIBM also addressed the conference among others.
In her address as chief guest, Sharifa Khan said the present economic model is no longer sustainable for ensuring a healthy world for our future generations. Though late, fortunately, the international community started acknowledging the necessity of immediate actions to prevent further deterioration from climate change and environmental degradation.
"However, a green economic transition entails huge investment in almost every sector of the economy. It will be a tough call for the public sector to mobilize the required financial resources for a green and sustainable transition. Consequently, in this era of the free market economy, governments across the globe are increasingly trying to bring the private sector on board to lead the green economic transition", she added.
Our annual per capita carbon emission stands at 1.29 metric tons, yet we are the 7th most climate-vulnerable country in the world. Climate-induced disasters 2 are eroding a substantial portion of our hard-earned growth. In the last decade, damage to infrastructure, loss of livelihoods, and forgone production due to climate induced disasters cost us up to 1.0 percent of our GDP, Sharifa Khan said.
This estimation, however, did not include the significant loss of lives due to numerous climate-induced disasters. The Country Climate and Development Report 2022 of World Bank Group, predicts one-third of total agricultural GDP loss by 2050, due to climate variability and extreme event.
According to the report, Bangladesh could see over 13 million internal climate migrants by this time. Apart from the impacts of climate change, most of us are not well aware of the environmental cost of development.
