Experts at a policy roundtable on Sunday called for scrapping unfair energy agreements, making greater use of domestic resources and reducing Bangladesh’s dependence on imported fuel to overcome the country’s energy crisis.
They also stressed expanding renewable energy, strengthening energy sovereignty and ensuring transparency and accountability in the energy sector.
The views came at a roundtable titled “Navigating the Energy Transition: Foreign Policy Alignment and Geopolitical Resilience” held at Hotel InterContinental Dhaka in the afternoon.
The Institute of Policy, Governance and Advocacy for Development (IPGAD) organised the event, moderated by its Executive Director Mostafa Hossain.
Professor Mushtaq Khan, an economist at SOAS University of London, said the current energy crisis should be viewed from two perspectives — short-term problems in energy supply and long-term structural and production-related problems.
Pointing to what he described as serious structural flaws, he said electricity generation capacity increased fourfold on paper during the Awami League government, while actual costs increased 11 times and capacity payments 20 times.
“This is not normal. Many power plants were approved simply out of greed for capacity payments or plant rents, even though there was no arrangement for fuel supply,” he said.
Speaking about the legal complications surrounding 25-year sovereign agreements, Khan warned that Bangladesh could face difficulties if it pursued disputes over unpaid bills through conventional international arbitration.
Using the Adani agreement as an example, he said the country should instead seek to prove in an international court that there had been widespread corruption and irregularities when the agreement was signed.
He also advised the government to keep alternatives ready and pursue strategic negotiations in response to any threat by Adani to stop supplying electricity.
“This is not an ordinary bureaucratic task; it is literally a fight to save the country,” Khan said, urging the prime minister to directly oversee crisis management.
Lawmaker Mansura Alam focused on policy changes in the energy sector and the need to move toward renewable energy.
She said the energy transition was not only an environmental issue but also directly linked to the country’s economy.
“Our power sector is now at a very important crossroads. So far, our only goal was to increase generation capacity. But the challenge now is completely different. We must think about how to ensure sustainable, affordable and environmentally friendly energy production,” she said.
Referring to the government’s renewable energy targets, Alam said Bangladesh aims to generate 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and 30 percent by 2040.
“But in reality, our achievement is still much lower, at around 5 percent,” she said.
Molla Amzad Hossain, a leading energy journalist and editor of Energy & Power magazine, identified a lack of policy continuity as a key reason behind the current crisis.
He said major decisions were ultimately taken by politicians and recalled that after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman bought five gas fields for only £4.5 million, which he described as a far-sighted decision.
“We are still benefiting from those reserves,” he said.
Criticising successive governments for neglecting domestic gas exploration, Hossain said Bangladesh had large gas reserves in Bhola.
He said Petrobangla had around 4 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of reserves in domestic gas fields but was producing only 600-700 million cubic feet per day.
By contrast, he said Chevron was supplying 900 million cubic feet of gas daily from reserves of 1.1 TCF.
“This is our utter failure,” he said.
Hossain also alleged that thousands of crores of taka had been wasted in the name of quick rental power plants and LNG imports.
He stressed the use of inverter air conditioners and BLDC fans in residential areas to reduce electricity consumption.