Change Initiative

24/08/2026

Change Initiative is pleased to announce that our Co-Founder and Chief Executive, M Zakir Hossain Khan, has been appointed as a member of the Expert Advisory Pool (voluntary position) formed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for the Government’s five-year national environmental and ecological initiatives.

The Expert Advisory Pool will provide guidance on:

-Policy, strategy, and regulatory reforms;
-Evidence-based site selection, mapping, and technology-enabled monitoring;
- Climate finance, carbon credits, and international resource mobilisation;
-Independent monitoring and evaluation; and
-Public awareness, media engagement, and strategic communication.

The appointment aligns closely with Change Initiative’s expertise in environmental governance, climate finance, data-driven policy research, ecological integrity, and Natural Rights-Led Governance (NRLG). CI remains committed to translating evidence into practical policy solutions that advance equity, climate justice, and nature-positive development.

We invite our followers and well-wishers to reach out to us with innovative ideas, suggestions, or recommendations related to this national initiative. We will do our best to amplify relevant and constructive ideas across the broader environmental community.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bangladesh
PMO Bangladesh - প্রধানমন্ত্রীর কার্যালয়

23/08/2026

Import dependence can never deliver genuine energy security.

Bangladesh’s reliance on imported fossil fuels leaves its industries, SMEs, employment and foreign-exchange stability exposed to disruptions across the Strait of Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb and the Strait of Malacca. Energy is the lifeline of the economy; depending on external fuel supply chains to keep that economy functioning is not energy sovereignty.

M Zakir Hossain Khan calls for an emergency national renewable-energy programme: rapidly implement the 10,000 MW solar initiative, mobilise USD 1–2 billion in interest-free or highly concessional financing for rooftop solar in industries and SMEs, expand solar irrigation, reduce excessive system losses and secure available international climate finance.

The technology, finance and supply capacity already exist. What Bangladesh needs now is the political courage to move beyond fossil-fuel vested interests and build a faster, fairer and more affordable transition grounded in energy sovereignty.

Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources, Bangladesh Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bangladesh Channel 24

23/08/2026

Who should truly be considered “civilized” communities that live within nature’s regenerative limits, or societies that destroy ecosystems in the name of development?

Across the Amazon and other natural systems, Indigenous and forest-dependent communities have sustained their ways of life by respecting ecological cycles. Their endurance exposes a fundamental weakness in modern governance: states divide ecosystems through political borders, but forests, rivers, oceans and biodiversity operate according to their own interconnected natural laws.

M Zakir Hossain Khan further challenges an economic model that treats deforestation, pollution, illness and ecological damage as contributors to GDP. After more than three decades of engagement with climate, environment, economics and governance, his conclusion is clear: development cannot be sustainable when it profits from the destruction of the conditions that make life possible.

Natural Rights-Led Governance offers a transformative alternative—recognizing nature as sovereign and every living entity as a rights-holder. Before approving any law, budget, project or economic intervention, we must ask: does it protect or violate the non-negotiable natural rights to life, clean air, fresh water, food, liberty, dignity and ecological regeneration?

21/08/2026

20/08/2026

“Electricity theft has become rampant across the country, with an estimated 15–20 percent of electricity being lost through theft. The previous interim government should have taken decisive measures to curb this malpractice. According to international benchmarks, transmission and distribution losses should not exceed 8 percent. Anything beyond that threshold must be investigated and addressed as potential electricity theft rather than routinely classified as system loss.”
-M Zakir Hossain Khan

20/08/2026

Nature is sovereign. Human beings are part of Nature; whenever they attempt to dominate its natural laws, they invite their own destruction.

If someone asks about my identity, I would say that I am a naturalist at heart and a researcher in practice. I travel through natural landscapes and diverse regions, work with friends and colleagues, and lead Change Initiative a global think-and-do tank founded on three fundamental principles: equity, justice, and the environment.

Since childhood, I have tried to understand the relationship between Nature and human beings. We are repeatedly told that civilization, advancement, and economic prosperity represent development. Yet, too often, development has arrived as destruction forests are degraded, trees are cut down, rivers and oceans are polluted, and living ecosystems are sacrificed for factories, excessive consumption, and concrete megastructures.

Nature operates according to its own laws and regenerative systems. Oceans move through tidal cycles, rivers follow their natural courses, forests regenerate, and even the human body responds to its biological clock. These systems remind us that Nature is not merely a resource to be controlled; it is a sovereign living order of which humanity is only one part.

The fundamental error begins when human beings consider themselves sovereign and expect Nature to conform to their ambitions. Our knowledge of natural systems remains incomplete. Therefore, an anthropocentric economic model built on unlimited extraction, material expansion, and ecological degradation cannot represent genuine progress.

Human rights are indispensable, but they cannot be sustained without protecting the rights of Nature. Global governance must move beyond an exclusively human-centred understanding of rights and recognize Nature’s intrinsic right to exist, regenerate, and maintain its ecological integrity.

This is the foundation of Natural Rights-Led Governance (NRLG): development must operate within natural laws and ecological limits. Progress should be judged not by how much we extract, consume, or construct, but by whether it protects life, restores ecosystems, advances justice, and safeguards future generations.
-M Zakir Hossain Khan

18/08/2026

A message policymakers can no longer afford to ignore; the global power system is changing faster than many national energy plans.

The policy message is unmistakable-the world is no longer debating whether the renewable transition will happen, it is deciding who will lead it and who will pay the price for arriving late.

In 2026 alone, solar electricity generation is expected to increase by around 600 TWh, matching the record growth of 2025. For the first time, solar is on course to overtake wind and become the world’s second-largest source of renewable electricity.

But the bigger shift is historic- renewables are expected to generate more electricity than coal in 2026, after reaching near parity in 2025.

For energy-import-dependent countries, delaying solar, storage, grids and distributed renewables is no longer technological caution. It is an economic, fiscal and energy-security risk.

PMO Bangladesh - প্রধানমন্ত্রীর কার্যালয়
Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources, Bangladesh
Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources, Bangladesh

18/08/2026

Considering Bangladesh’s ecological vulnerability, biodiversity, public health, dependence on imported energy, and long-term economic risks, adopting a time-bound and just transition plan to phase out coal-fired power as quickly as realistically possible should now be treated as a national priority. However, this should not mean abruptly shutting down all coal plants and creating a new electricity supply crisis.

Each coal-fired power plant should be assessed in terms of its debt obligations, remaining economic life, grid dependence, employment implications, and available alternative generation capacity. Based on this assessment, Bangladesh should prepare a Phased Retirement and Repurposing Roadmap. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has also stressed that rapidly reducing coal dependence requires simultaneous expansion of renewable energy capacity, grid flexibility, and energy storage.

In particular, Bangladesh should immediately examine the feasibility of transforming Rampal, Payra, and Matarbari into future Renewable Energy and Storage Hubs. These locations already have power-generation facilities, grid connections, transmission infrastructure, and industrial support systems, parts of which could be repurposed after coal phase-out. This could accelerate the clean-energy transition while reducing the risk of stranded assets.

In the case of Rampal, this idea is no longer entirely theoretical. In 2026, BPDB planned a 442 MW solar project near the Rampal coal-fired power plant, although the project is still at the planning stage. At Matarbari, projects of 50 MW solar and 100 MW wind have also been listed under CPGCBL. These should not yet be considered full conversions of the existing coal plants, but they demonstrate the potential direction of transition.

In my view, the planning framework should be:

Coal Plant → Planned Retirement → Renewable Generation + Battery Storage + Grid Services + Just Transition.

In other words, creating new coal-related liabilities would be economically and environmentally self-defeating. Bangladesh should instead progressively reduce coal dependence at existing plants, avoid new coal investments, and rapidly build an integrated system of nature-compatible renewable energy, solar power, battery energy storage systems, and the grid flexibility required to support them.

Most importantly, new renewable-energy infrastructure in environmentally sensitive coastal areas such as Rampal, Payra, and Matarbari must not create additional pressure on land, wetlands, biodiversity, water systems, or the livelihoods of local communities. The transition from coal to renewable energy will be genuine only if it does not replace one form of ecological degradation with another form of damage to nature.

Bangladesh’s policy should therefore not focus on finding arguments to prolong coal-fired generation. Instead, it should immediately begin a time-bound plan to repurpose existing coal infrastructure into renewable-energy hubs, while minimising financial losses, reducing the economic burden of coal, protecting millions of people living in vulnerable coastal regions, and maximising ecological and public-interest benefits.

PMO Bangladesh - প্রধানমন্ত্রীর কার্যালয়
Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources, Bangladesh
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bangladesh
Finance Division, Ministry of Finance
The Climate Watch
The New York Times

14/08/2026

To address the intensify energy crises of Bangladesh Change Initiative recommends following immediate measures-

a) Bangladesh needs a war-footing, whole-of-government response with time-bound delivery and clearly assigned responsibilities, and accountability for failure.

b) The PMO should immediately reprioritise lower-priority projects and mobilise available and committed FDI;

c) Within 5-7 working days, Bangladesh Bank’s green-finance facilities, IDCOL’s available resources, including relevant GCF and MDB financing, and other domestic and international investment windows should be pooled into a coordinated financing mechanism for rapid, demand-driven rooftop-solar deployment across factories, warehouses, commercial buildings, and public institutions.

d) A coordinated emergency programme can significantly reduce daytime load-shedding, at the same time, electricity theft and non-technical losses must be tackled through strict enforcement, smart metering, and real-time monitoring, as they aggravate system inefficiency and financial stress.

Bangladesh should treat the present crisis as an opportunity to accelerate a just energy transition, rather than allowing the country to be locked into further fossil-fuel dependence by vested interests and rent-seeking narratives against renewable energy.

PMO Bangladesh - প্রধানমন্ত্রীর কার্যালয়
Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources, Bangladesh
Finance Division, Ministry of Finance
Bangladesh Bank-The Central Bank of Bangladesh
Infrastructure Development Company Limited - IDCOL