Streamlining energy policy

Of the many cutting-edge technologies being explored by the world's leading scientific communities and industrialised nations, solar windows provide a unique opportunity. This is so because the world is urbanising at a phenomenal pace, especially in developing countries such as Bangladesh. As the country modernises, new architecture dictates a trend where more and more buildings (both new and old) end up with glass facades. This could be an opportunity to take the lead in a glassy world, generate employment and attract the right kind of FDI – make a product that is exportable.

Bangladesh stands at the precipice of economic development or disaster. The policies undertaken in the current tenure of government will largely decide which way the nation will be heading. There is little room to maneuver and the road ahead is fraught with pitfalls. A precious decade has been completely wasted on adopting legislation that has crippled the nation's capacity to be self-reliant in energy. A flawed  decision to move away from using its coal base, at a time when the two economic power houses in Asia, viz. China and India have gone for developing their own coal reserves and scour the planet in a race to secure future supplies of the fuel. Faulty it was because while these two major economies moved ahead in leaps and bounds in terms of economic prowess, Bangladesh is now in a fix.

The country has missed the "coal train". It may miss the "gas train" as well. Getting back to rapid urbanisation and the solar window technology which has been maturing slowly but surely, policymakers in Bangladesh need to take a long view. There will always be loud protests by the entrenched energy import lobby that has taken the country to the brink of disaster. There will be a section of policymakers who are very good at making excuses about why things haven't panned out, how policy was on the right track and basically how every expert, regardless of their expertise, and every journalist who has questioned the official mantra has been dubbed 'traitors'.

The founder of the country, as history will testify, moved heaven and earth to lay the foundations of an energy-independent nation. Those in the driving seat have moved away from his vision for this nation. While the majority of the current crop of energy decision makers gratifies themselves in self-congratulation, a few of them will be remembered by history as having done the nation a great service. The power of the sun is omnipresent and it is free. While all the talk has been around massive (and hugely expensive) solar power plants that can only supply energy during daylight hours, is it too much to ask that the government looked into technological advancements in solar windows?

In a broader spectrum, it would be wise to look at what has worked in countries like Vietnam where prudent policies over the last few decades have transformed that nation's economic upward trajectory that has baffled many. Bangladesh is on the verge of losing the demographic dividend it has been endowed with. With such a large younger population that is eager to contribute to the national effort, our institutions have failed them and there is a growing trend whereby they end up on foreign shores either as blue-collar workers or part of the "brain drain". It is up to the decision makers how they will carve out the economy, adopt policies of hope and development, or continue with ideas that haven't worked.

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