- Bangladesh is 12th largest importer of coal
-60 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2023
- 21.1 Pc electricity comes from coal power plants
Bangladesh is one of the top textile producing and exporting countries in the world. In the past decades, the population and production of Bangladesh have increased in parallel with the demand for electricity. The garment sector of the country requires a large amount of electricity almost 24 hours a day. With the increase in other production of the country, the demand for electricity has increased.
To generate the electricity as per the demands, the use of coal instead of gas as a fuel in thermal power plants of Bangladesh is gradually increasing. And due to the burning of these fossil fuels, the pollution is also increasing by leaps and bounds. According to data from UK-based energy think tank Amber, coal-fired power generation in Bangladesh has doubled in 2023 compared to 2022.
According to a report of the news agency Reuters citing the report of Amber, a record 17 terawatt hours of electricity has been produced in Bangladesh using coal during this period. During this period, the production of gas-based power plants increased by only 4.7 percent. In this situation, the total production from gas stands at 47.44 terawatt hours.
This trend indicates that in Bangladesh's mixed—gas and coal-based—system of power generation, coal consumption is steadily increasing. Not only that, just two years ago only 7 percent of Bangladesh's total electricity generation came from coal-based power plants, now that amount is 21.1 percent.
While the use of coal is gradually increasing, the consumption of gas is gradually decreasing since 2019. In 2023, 59 percent of Bangladesh's power generation sector will come from natural gas-based plants. In 2021 and 2019, this amount was 66 and 76.4 percent respectively.
In this situation, if the use of coal in Bangladesh's power plants continues to increase, then within the current decade coal will be considered the largest source of power generation in Bangladesh, which will hinder the efforts to reduce the use of coal around the world.
According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates, Bangladesh's GDP growth in the past five years was 6.2 percent, which is at least twice as high as the global average GDP. With the increase in GDP, the consumption of electricity in manufacturing and other sectors has increased at a large rate. Because of that, there were regular power outages last year. In order to avoid the same situation in 2024, i.e. the current year, the government has directed the power generation companies to use more coal and even allowed the import of coal.
Bangladesh is already importing coal from India by trucks and trains. However, in 2023, the country also imported coal by sea. Trade intelligence firm Kepler's calculation said in 2023, Bangladesh will import 47 percent of the total coal, i.e. 12.7 million tons, by sea.
According to Kepler data, between 2017 and 2021, Bangladesh imported an average of 6.8 million tons of coal by sea. However, in 2023, imports will almost double to 12.7 million tons, making Bangladesh the 12th largest importer of coal in the world. Bangladesh was ranked 14th in this list two years ago.
Amber says coal-fired power generation has pushed Bangladesh's carbon emissions to record highs. The country is expected to emit 60 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2023, which is much higher than in 2022. Carbon emissions were 58.3 million tons that year. In all, carbon emissions in 2023 are up nearly 24 percent from 2019.
Carbon intensive power generation in Bangladesh has also increased. In 2023, approximately 741,500 tons of carbon dioxide has been emitted for every kilowatt hour of electricity production. In 2022, that amount was 7 lakh 23 thousand 200 tons.
Coal-based power generation and power import have not stopped either. In January this year, 2.11 terawatts have been produced from coal. A year ago it was .83 terawatts. Bangladesh has imported 3 million coals till March this year.
If the use and import of coal for power generation continues in Bangladesh, the year 2024 is likely to set records in both coal-based production and carbon emissions. Even after the rest of the world turns its back on coal, Bangladesh could emerge as a coal demand hub.
ZH
