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REPORT 
 

A Report on the National Workshop on 
“Strengthening National Capacity to Meet the 
Enhanced Transparency Framework of the Paris 
Agreement in Bangladesh” 
 

Md. Arfanuzzaman  and Md. Shaheduzzaman  
 
One of the key outcomes of the Paris Agreement was the establishment of 
an Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) for tracking and reporting 
the progress of countries on existing and future climate action 
commitments, with built-in flexibility for non-Annex I Parties. The 
Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) was created at the 
request of non-Annex 1 Parties to strengthen their institutional and 
technical capacities to meet the ETF requirements defined in Article 13 of 
the Paris Agreement. Till 2019, a total of 58 projects were approved by the 
Global Environment Facility (GEF) Secretariat including the Bangladesh 
project. The major objective of Bangladesh’s CBIT project is to strengthen 
institutional and human capacities in Bangladesh to meet the requirements 
of the ETF and to track progress against priority mitigation and adaptation 
actions identified in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), 
focusing on the agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU); energy; 
industrial processes and product use (IPPU); and waste sectors.  

                                                           
 Climate Change MRV Expert, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 
(FAO), House # 37; Road #08, Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh; 

thisisarfan@gmail.com.  

 Senior Environmental Advisor, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 
(FAO), House # 37; Road #08, Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh; 
md.shaheduzzaman@fao.org.  

The views expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent 
those of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. 

Copyright © Arfanuzzaman and Shaheduzzaman 2021. Released under Creative Commons 
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0) by the author.  

Published by Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE), c/o Institute of Economic 
Growth, University Enclave, North Campus, Delhi 110007.  

ISSN: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.299  

https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.299


Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [154] 

To meet its ETF requirements, Bangladesh needs to report inventories of 
emissions sources and sinks derived from credible and transparent data 
sources, which will enable the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) to track 
progress against priority actions identified in Bangladesh’s NDC. But the 
limited institutional capacity for sectoral greenhouse gas (GHG) data 
monitoring and reporting, absence of metadata and quality-control 
protocols, and inadequate data sharing / archiving frameworks and policies 
obstruct Bangladesh’s effort to meet the ETF requirements, as noted in its 
Third National Communication to the United Nations Framework 
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In this context, the Ministry of 
Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), with technical 
support from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United 
Nations, organized a national workshop on 12 March 2020 at Dhaka under 
a GEF-supported CBIT project with a view to i) strengthen stakeholders’ 
awareness of ETF requirements; ii) discuss sectoral GHG data collection 
and sharing arrangements; iii) conduct gap assessment for the monitoring of 
NDC priority adaptation and mitigation activities. A total of 83 participants 
from different ministries and departments, United Nations agencies, 
development partners, universities, think tanks, and non-government 
organizations as well as national and international environmental experts 
participated in the workshop. Of the 83 participants, 25% were female and 
75% were male. The workshop solicited inputs from different stakeholders 
on past/ongoing projects and activities related to GHG emissions and 
adaptation, existing procedures, and institutional mechanisms for mitigation 
and adaptation-related data collection and sharing.  

In the inaugural session, Mirza Shawkat Ali, Director (Climate Change & 
International Convention) of the Department of Environment (DoE), 
MoEFCC, specified that as a signatory to the Paris Agreement, Bangladesh 
is committed to using specified protocols for monitoring, reporting, and 
verification (MRV) and tracking progress against the NDCs. However, 
Bangladesh has critical data gaps in the AFOLU and waste sectors as well as 
the energy and IPPU sectors, and this is where the CBIT project will play a 
crucial role in establishing an interoperable, transparent, and verifiable data 
collection, analysis, reporting, and archiving system.  

Then, Mathieu Van Rijn, Forestry Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia-
Pacific, gave a presentation on “ETF & FAO-led CBIT Projects in Asia and 
the Pacific”. He mentioned that the AFOLU sector is the most frequently 
included sector in developing countries’ NDCs. He articulated that the key 
guiding principle of the adopted modalities, procedures, and guidelines 
(MPGs) for the transparency framework in COP 24 is to (i) maintain 
frequency and quality of reporting, and (ii) improve reporting and 
transparency over time. While describing the initial experiences and lessons 



[155] Md. Arfanuzzaman and Md. Shaheduzzaman 

 

from other CBIT projects, he mentioned that Papua New Guinea has 
prepared an AFOLU Action Plan and Mongolia has established an NDC 
Forum that addresses the need for well-structured institutional 
arrangements and transparent GHG data collection and reporting. While 
speaking as a Special Guest, Robert D Simpson, FAO Representative in 
Bangladesh, stressed the importance of a well-designed policy for achieving 
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which must include a rigorous 
effort to address environmental and climate change issues. He stated that 
the global response to climate change today will determine how we feed 
future generations tomorrow. Agriculture, including forestry, crops, 
fisheries, and livestock production, generates around a fifth of the world's 
GHG emissions. This must be significantly reduced by 2030 to achieve the 
goal of limiting global warming to 2 degree Celsius. 

A. Shamim Al Razi, Additional Secretary (Development), MoEFCC, 
mentioned that strengthening individual and institutional capacities in 
Bangladesh is essential to meet the ETF requirements. He noted that 
Bangladesh has a huge data deficit with regards the environment and 
natural resource sector, where special attention is required to enhance 
environmental governance. Ziaul Hasan, Secretary, MoEFCC, in his 
remarks as Chief Guest, emphasized the need to strengthen the technical 
capacities of Bangladesh to meet the ETF requirements of the Paris 
Agreement. He urged the project administration to set up a common and 
user-friendly platform for GHG data sharing and coordination to comply 
with the TCCCA (transparent, consistent, comparable, complete, and 
accurate) reporting principles. Ziaul Hasan assured that the MoEFCC will 
take the lead in addressing the environmental issues of the country.  

Following the inaugural session, nearly 50 participants from different 
organizations engaged in a group discussion. In general, there was a high 
degree of support from the participants for a formal memorandum of 
understanding (MoU) between the DoE and the respective entities on 
GHG data collection. Participants also noted that universities, which 
conduct research on emissions factors and activities for various sectors, are 
not always linked to line ministries and departments. DoE / MoEFCC 
could form a panel of experts to review of the Biennial Update Report 
(BUR) and Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) and recognize them 
officially for their contribution in the reports. Group discussants also 
expressed interest in technical capacity-building workshops, since many data 
providers are not entirely familiar with UNFCCC or ETF / MRV related 
requirements. Discussants noted that the waste sector will require focused 
capacity-building efforts since city corporations and municipalities often 
lack record-keeping, despite waste management policies and projects. 



Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [156] 

In their evaluations of the workshop, most of the participants 
recommended the development of a unified data collection template 
(including meta-data standards) and indicated that this should be followed 
by training. Participants also proposed the formation of a technical working 
group to check the accuracy and quality of the GHG emissions data of 
Bangladesh. Participants urged that to close capacity gaps, Bangladesh 
needs to have an intensive focus on the following aspects: 

(i) institutional arrangements to support the transition to ETF; 

(ii) technical capacities for mitigation-related MRV; and 

(iii) capacities for adaptation-related monitoring and reporting. 

Finally, in addition to the efforts towards meeting the ETF requirements, 
Bangladesh as well as other developing countries need to pay sufficient 
attention to environmental equality enhancement and green economy 
advancement. To attain this, strong political commitment, as well as 
institutional arrangements and capacity-building, a robust NDC 
implementation strategy, private-sector engagement, technological 
innovation, and law and enforcement, need to be strengthened. 
Nevertheless, there is no alternative for awareness-raising on transparent 
GHG emission measurement, monitoring, and reporting, and effective 
mitigation action. 

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

The authors are grateful to the editor of the journal and the anonymous 
reviewers for providing useful comments and suggestion to further improve 
the paper. 

 


