Bangladesh's Energy Crisis: A Decades-Long Failure to Adapt

Bangladesh's energy crisis has been decades in the making. Since 2002, experts had warned that the country's primary source of affordable energy, natural gas, would be depleted by 2030-31.

In a bid to address this looming deadline, successive governments focused on quick fixes using imported fuels. While these imports brought temporary relief and benefited a select group of businesspeople, they failed to provide long-term solutions, leaving Bangladesh steadily inching towards its energy deadline.

Experts had advocated for utilising domestic coal, discovering new gas reserves through active exploration, and expanding renewable power generation to strengthen the indigenous energy backbone. However, these recommendations were largely ignored by the government.