Published on: 03/12/2013

Bangladeshis are quite powerless to reduce the greenhouse gases being spewed out by more developed countries, nor can they hope to reverse what’s been done. The country has instead become a hotbed for adaptation strategies and experimentation, where some innovative models are being developed and explored. Aid agencies, donors and NGOs have begun pitching in to help Bangladesh prepare for a changing climate.

The majority of Bangladeshis may not be familiar with the catch phrase “reducing your carbon footprint”, compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) are all the rage. From Dhaka to rural areas, people are switching their normal light bulbs to CFLs that can save 80 percent of energy consumption.

This light bulb trend got started by a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project that partnered clean development champions South South North and Grameen Shakti with a Bangladeshi CFL manufacturer in plans to replace 100,000 bulbs with CFLs in rural Bangladesh.

Energy entrepreneurs might like to note the success of Grameen Shakti (which means ‘village energy’). Set up by the Nobel Prize-winning Grameen Bank in 1996, this not-for-profit has been supplying renewable energy to unelectrified villages — almost 70 percent of homes in Bangladesh are not on the grid — that were formerly dependent on polluting kerosene or dirty diesel generators for lighting. Grameen Shakti has to date sold and installed 205,000 photovoltaic solar home-systems (SHSs). see details