Successive governments from 2009 onwards were headed by the same party and the country ended up paying billions of dollars for establishing several mega projects that were supposed to generate 40 Gigawatts (GW) of power by 2030. If the biggest scam over the last 15 years centred around the banking system, then the energy scam follows close behind. Energy experts and the government's own energy professionals working in the sector were effectively silenced by disinformation. The use of certain civil society groups to whip up the myth of catastrophic environmental degradation if open-pit method of coal mining was done helped fuel this fallacy.
There is no denying that coal mining has its demerits, but the technological advancements made in the field were simply not taken into account. Then why were all these expensive coal power plants built? There was no way that Bangladesh could handle the millions of tons of coal which would be needed to keep these plants in operation from two vital points. First, huge investments would be needed in terms of setting up the physical infrastructure to transport coal and second but equally important, a lack of requisite finance to sign long-term coal supply contracts internationally.
The idea that Bangladesh could always buy coal from the spot market was not only wrong but quite absurd because a handful of countries were both largest buyers and consumers of international coal and this included China, India, the United States and some other nations. Not only did these nations have deep pockets but also had the infrastructure and finance in place to buy up coal from far-off lands like Australia, Indonesia, etc. for many years in advance.
The idea of producing thousands of megawatts of power from coal was a pipedream, or was it? As one sifts through the emerging data in the aftermath of the change in government, it is now abundantly clear that the past regime was interested only in import. That's where the profits lay for a small coterie of business interests and corrupt officials. There was no intention to develop the economy. Developing own natural resources would have brought no profit at the individual or company level. What good would it serve if people did benefit, if industry developed or employment generated? That would mean no personal wealth for buying the $25,000 designer watch, no holidays in the Swiss Alps, no "Begum Para" in the developed world.
The scene was set for a Yeltsin-type era in Bangladesh. The country would serve the interests of a few hundred thousand people who would rip off this country in the name of development while the rest of the population would barely eke out a living. Former policymakers were dead wrong on the coal issue. If one looks at the Asia Pacific region, the global coal production reached an epic 179 exajoules (EJ), surpassing the previous year's record. Indeed, according to an article published in Forbes magazine, "The Asia Pacific region contributed nearly 80% of the global output, primarily driven by Australia, China, India, and Indonesia, which together accounted for 97% of the region's production." This is further explained in the '2024 Statistical Review of World Energy' published by the Energy Institute in June this year.
Coal didn't decline, its consumption has been rising over the last decade. Only our policymakers used the "environmental" argument to cripple the economy while rest of Asia was galloping ahead to use coal for spurring their economies. The second argument on international coal prices is that the demand has reduced over the last decade. But as stated before, global economic giants in Asia like China (followed by India) were in a competition to lock future outputs of major coal producing nations years in advance. How could an emerging economy like Bangladesh ever hope to compete at that level?
Our needs were a pittance compared to those countries. Why would any major seller even bother with our demands? It should be noted here that both high and low quality have been used in both these countries. Yes, there has been environmental fall-out, but it was deemed a national priority in both China and India to develop their economies first and invest in cleaner coal technologies to mitigate some of the environmental fallouts. Without strong economies, policymakers in those countries could not lift millions of people out of poverty and jobs would not be generated without cheap power.
Bangladesh missed the entire point of cheap, reliable power. Today, the interim government is stuck with this problem of multiple, multi-billion-dollar coal-fired plants that are sitting idle. We have wasted precious years when the coal mines could have been developed and there is no money to buy the coal from the international market now. There is no silver bullet to solve this mess and the only way out for Bangladesh is if the billions of dollars siphoned off and laundered abroad can be brought back. Then perhaps, some sort of financial settlement can be reached before seeking an exit from these contracts and investing in development of natural gas fields. A tall order, but there is no other option for today's policymakers.
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