Developed countries should be energy responsible: PM's adviser

Developed countries should demonstrate greater energy responsibility towards the demand-side management of power wastage and develop frontier technologies to make smart and renewable energy available to developing countries, said Prime Minister's Energy Adviser Tawfiq-E-Elahi Chowdhury.

The current government has achieved unprecedented success in ensuring energy security by quadrupling power generation and championing energy and power grid connectivity with the neighbours in the past nine years, he said yesterday.

He made the comments as the leader of the Bangladeshi delegation at the Second Asian and Pacific Energy Forum of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), held in Bangkok.

Bangladesh was highly praised at the forum for its remarkable success in increasing electricity penetration from 45 percent to 90 percent since 2009, Bangladesh's embassy in Bangkok said a statement.

During the period, five million home solar systems were also installed in the country, which is the highest in the world, according to the statement.

Energy ministers of 20 countries from the Asia and the Pacific region attended the event to ensure effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal 7 on sustainable energy. UNESCAP Executive Secretary Shamshad Akhtar, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand Virasakdi Futrakul, Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia Kirill Molodtsov and Bangladeshi Ambassador to Thailand Saida Muna Tasneem also attended the forum.