Clinton Offers Clean Energy and Forest Conservation in Bangladesh
© Environment News Service (ENS) 2000
March 21, 2000
NEW DELHI, India, March 21, 2000 (ENS) - During his visit to Dhaka, Bangladesh on Monday, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced $84 million in clean energy initiatives for Bangladesh and the South Asia Region. Bangladesh also will be the first nation to receive funding under a United States 1998 law that converts old debt to new funding to protect tropical forests.
In response to the recent signature of Bangladesh on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty prohibitng nuclear testing, President Clinton said Monday, "I'm sending to our Congress the renewal of our agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation with Bangladesh."
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh said Monday in Dhaka that the two countries have decided to intensify cooperation in the energy sector.
Bangladesh and the U.S. signed an agreement under which the U.S. will provide a $30 million grant to achieve increased institutional capacity to make decisions in clean energy development, improve the environment, and increase public support for energy sector reform, said Prime Minister Hasina.
In addition to the $30 million, President Clinton offered clean energy funding of $50 million for a four-year South Asia Regional Initiative (SARI) Energy Program to be funded and implemented by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
SARI promotes cooperation and trade in clean energy, natural gas and renewable energy sources such as solar power, among South Asian countries. It also aims to combat global warming by substituting renewable energy technologies for the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal. The partner countries for SARI include Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
The initiative will provide technical assistance and training to support regional energy development, cooperation and eventual trade in energy resources among South Asian nations. It could give rise to a regional utility and regulatory partnership program with the U.S. Energy Association, and a regional energy business partnership program with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
USAID will also provide $4 million for a Grameen Shakti five-year renewable energy program. Grameen Shakti is a not-for-profit rural power company that supplies renewable energy to unelectrified villages in Bangladesh. The grant will support the promotion and marketing of photovoltaic solar home systems for rural electrification of power small enterprises.
Grameen Shakti started its solar demonstration project in April 1996 with the installation of 26 solar household systems in selected villages of Bangladesh. The demonstration aimed to acquaint rural people with this new technology and enable them realize its usefulness for lighting, children's education, women's welfare, and recreational and income generating activities.
President Clinton announced Monday that the U.S. will make up to $6 million available for a debt-for-nature swap in Bangladesh. In agreements still to be negotiated, the U.S. will reduce part of Bangladesh's outstanding debt in exchange for the country's commitment to invest funds in tropical forest conservation.
The funding for the swap is made possible by the Tropical Forest Conservation Act signed by President Clinton in July 1998. Part of the agreement will be the creation of a Bangladesh Tropical Forest Fund overseen by a board composed of members from non-governmental organizations that focus on forestry and biodiversity.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) United States president Kathryn Fuller welcomed news of the swap. "The tropical forests of Bangldesh are a key habitat for tigers, one of the most endangered species, and we support their effort to preserve them," Fuller said Monday.
One area to benefit from the forest conservation agreement is the Sundarbans region in southwestern Bangladesh, a biologically rich mangrove forest which crosses the border into India, is home to one of the world's largest Bengal tiger populations. The Sundarbans is on the Global 200, the WWF's list of the most biolgically outstanding and threatened regions on Earth.