Energy Security and Disaster Risk Governance in Energy Sector of Bangladesh

Khan Ferdousour Rahman, Indrajit Pal, Afshana Parven

Abstract


Bangladesh is prone to various hydrometeorological hazards due to its geophysical location. The exposures and resulting impacts of these natural hazards are aggravated by persistent social, economic and environmental status. Compounded with the country’s current dependence on imported fossil fuels and other challenges, this study seeks to stimulate discussions around the complementarity of energy sector as well as its linkages with disaster risk governance and promote good governance in the sector that integrates energy policies, disaster risk governance and climate change impacts. The energy sector plays a critical role in all stages of the disaster management cycle; especially considering that all societal service systems rely on the energy sector for everyday activities, as well as for emergency response and recovery (e.g., telecommunications, health, and infrastructure). Addressing the resilience of energy systems as a component of disaster risk governance, and in response to climate change, requires considering all the components of the power supply value chain. These components should be deployed in line with relevant national policy frameworks (i.e., national development plans, energy policies, building policies, among other regulations and planning instruments), availability of technical capabilities, and financial resources, among others. However, this has been observed that energy-related measures are poorly considered in the early stages of the disaster risk governance cycle. Therefore, this study proposes to promote the resilience of the energy sector in Bangladesh through comprehensive measures. With that in mind, efforts have been made to identify challenges, gaps and recommend plausible measures for solutions.

Keywords


disaster risk governance; fossil fuels; natural hazards; power supply value chain; resilience

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