Bangladesh resisting climate finance over World Bank involvement

A politically embarrassing stand off is developing as Bangladesh is currently resisting the UK's offer of £60 million of climate finance.

Bangladesh is believed to be resisting the UK's climate finance offer of £60 million due to the UK's insistence that it must be channelled through the World Bank. The UK is pressurising the Bangladeshi government into accepting the finance whilst refusing to consider other managers of the funds, such as through a Bangladeshi fund, which has greater transparency and participation by civil society.

Campaigners from the European Action Group on Climate Change Bangladesh, the World Development Movement and Jubilee Debt Campaign, this morning held a protest outside the Department for International Development on Monday to tell DfID not to force the World Bank on to Bangladesh. At the same time, campaigners in Dhaka in Bangladesh held a mass rally and formed a human chain around the donor conference where the UK has imposed a deadline on the Bangladeshi government to accept their conditions.

The UK is further insisting that the Bangladeshi government provides its own money for the fund, likely to drive the country further into debt. Later in the year, the UK will be giving further money to Bangladesh through the World Bank to tackle climate change, all of which will be loans.

Campaigner from Justice and Equity Bangladesh, Md Shmasuddoha, said:
"Today twenty one civil society organizations held a rally and human chain in front of donor summit in Dhaka and called upon the developed country representatives and donors to pay their carbon debt as compensation. Speakers from the human chain said that Bangladesh is facing a catastrophe caused by climate change, which is the result of high carbon emissions historically by the developed countries."

Tim Jones from the World Development Movement said:
"The UK must be careful not to fall into the pattern of its former colonial ways by imposing conditions on an independent country. The World Bank is a deeply mistrusted institution that through its lending to developing countries has increased inequality, carbon emissions and debt in those countries. It's no surprise that developing countries don't want to have the Bank forced upon them."

Nick Dearden, from the Jubilee Debt Campaign said:
"Bangladesh is already paying large sums of money to the rich world every year, repaying debts which have done little to benefit the Bangladeshi people and which prevent that country's fight against poverty. These debts need to be cancelled. Instead of which, the UK is offering new loans to 'help' Bangladesh deal with a problem they are not responsible for: climate change. The UK owes Bangladesh a climate debt. We must ensure that climate change is not used as an excuse to further indebt developing countries"