Bangladesh Industrial Energy Efficiency Policy: A Draft for Sustainable Progress
Citation: Raihan, S., Hossain, I., Roy, S., Islam, I., Patwary, A. K. A., Al Ahsan, S. A., Surfaraz, M. S., Al Maruf, A., Ahmed, M. M., Rana, S., Mia, M. M., Hassan, M., & Majumder, K. A. (2026). Bangladesh Industrial Energy Efficiency Policy: A draft for sustainable progress. SANEM Publications, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s industrial sector, consuming 50% of national energy, faces critical inefficiencies threatening economic competitiveness and climate commitments. The country confronts a significant gap between ambitious master plans and inadequate implementation. This comprehensive policy framework addresses eight interconnected domains namely energy efficiency awareness, mandatory energy auditing, energy efficiency financing, energy conservation, stakeholders’ involvement and cooperation, improving grid efficiency and modernization, establishing effective enforcement mechanism and sector-specific approaches to improve energy efficiency in industries of the country. In-depth stakeholder consultation and secondary data have been the basis of drafting this policy challenges and suggestions. Four sectors in the industrial sector have been analyzed for this framework: Readymade Garments, Cement, Steel and Commercial sector. For these sectors, recommendations have been made on how to implement mandatory energy audits with incentives, how to set up one-stop green finance desks for SMEs to overcome barriers to access financing, how to implement industrial zoning to secure a stable grid supply and how to set up digital portals for online compliance. A sector-specific approach has been taken as each sector has its own set of challenges. For RMG factories, ensuring a stable grid supply is critical. For the cement sector, technology adoption costs need to be addressed. For the steel sector, power sensitivity of production needs to be addressed. For Commercial buildings, implementing climate-responsive building codes needs to be addressed.
Implementing these measures require strong coordination among Government institutions including SREDA and BERC and relevant Ministries and above all developing the capacity of existing energy professionals working in industries and promoting Triple Helix partnership between Government, Industry and Academia. If we can transform energy efficiency into competitive edge of industries through systemic reforms and easy financing mechanism and strong enforcement mechanism, the sustainability of industries of Bangladesh can be ensured and climate change commitments of Bangladesh can be fulfilled while maintaining competitiveness of Bangladeshi products in export markets.