Climate finance must protect vulnerable communities without deepening their debt.
“We are borrowing to survive a crisis we have done virtually nothing to bring about.”
In an exclusive interview with The Climate Watch ahead of COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, M. Zakir Hossain Khan, Co-Founder & Chief Executive of Change Initiative, calls for a fairer global financial system that puts climate justice, people and nature at the centre of financing decisions.
He outlines four priorities for Bangladesh:
• Grant-based adaptation and loss and damage finance, with clear delivery timelines.
• Reform of international financial institutions to address climate vulnerability, ecological losses and debt risks.
• A substantially resourced loss and damage fund, with rapid support reaching affected families.
• Continued access to grants and concessional finance based on vulnerability, including after LDC graduation.
Khan also stresses that international commitments must be matched by domestic accountability through transparent project selection, public disclosure, community-led monitoring and measurable improvements in people’s lives.
“Judge Antalya, one year later by the money that has been received, not by what was announced.”
@Zhkhaneco
#ClimateJustice #ClimateFinance #COP31 #ChangeInitiative
Full article link: theclimatewatch.com/banglade…
“International finance cannot replace domestic governance, and domestic governance cannot replace international climate justice. We need dual accountability, developed countries must honor climate-finance obligations, and Bangladesh must ensure every taka is transparently spent and produces measurable resilience. Climate justice requires finance; credibility requires integrity.”
M Zakir Hossain Khan
Co-Founder & Chief Executive
Change Initiative
#ClimateJustice #ClimateFinance #ChangeInitiative
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“Protecting the Earth is the foundation of future economic prosperity, lower disaster risk, stronger communities and a just global transition.”
Change Initiative’s Natural Rights-Led Governance (NRLG) framework sets out a pathway from a disaster-capitalizing economy to protection-led prosperity recognising nature’s rights, rewarding regeneration and strengthening community stewardship.
Aligning finance, energy and production with ecological limits can strengthen human security, support nature-smart jobs and build lasting prosperity. Progress must be measured through ecosystem recovery, justice and shared wellbeing.
#NaturalRightsLedGovernance #ProtectionLedProsperity #NaturePositiveEconomy #ClimateJustice #ChangeInitiative
Climate Debt, Not Climate Justice
Countries least responsible for the climate crisis should not have to borrow more to survive its consequences.
Change Initiative’s Climate Debt Risk Index 2025 (CDRI’25) estimates global climate-related debt at approximately US$372 billion. Of the 55 countries assessed, 47 face high or very high climate debt risk.
The infographic highlights a stark financing imbalance: annual adaptation finance of US$27.5 billion against estimated annual needs of US$387 billion covering only about 7%. Meanwhile, approximately 62% of adaptation finance is loan-based, adding repayment obligations to countries already confronting floods, droughts and rising seas.
When resilience depends on further borrowing, climate finance can deepen the vulnerability it is meant to address.
Change Initiative calls for accessible, transparent and grant-based climate finance, alongside meaningful debt relief, to protect communities, restore nature and strengthen resilience.
Climate justice requires finance that enables recovery without deepening sovereign debt.
Read more: changei.earth/post/justice-i…
#ClimateJustice #ClimateDebt #ClimateFinance #CDRI2025 #DebtRelief #ChangeInitiative #DebtFree
Nature is sovereign because life depends on non-negotiable ecological laws, not on human permission. Rights of Nature are meaningful only when they recognize those limits. If the same institutions that extract, pollute and profit are also allowed to define and enforce Nature’s rights, a clear conflict of interest arises. Human law, markets and investment must therefore operate within Nature’s sovereignty, not above it.
@Zhkhaneco
#NatureIsSovereign #RightsOfNature #NaturalRightsLedGovernance #EcologicalLimits #EnvironmentalAccountability #NaturePositiveFinance #ChangeInitiative
Climate finance must protect nature and strengthen women’s rights.
Writing in The Daily Observer, M. Zakir Hossain Khan Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Change Initiative, calls for mandatory gender impact assessments across major investments, infrastructure and climate-finance projects.
His message is clear: women must help shape decisions not simply be counted as beneficiaries. Investment should protect water, farmland and ecosystems, assess environmental impacts across the full life cycle, and deliver fair benefits for local communities.
Through the lens of Natural Rights-Led Governance (NRLG), Bangladesh’s development priorities must connect ecological integrity, gender justice and long-term prosperity.
Read the full article: lnkd.in/g9Bsgjdz
#ChangeInitiative #ClimateFinance #GenderJustice #NRLG
Full article link: observerbd.com/news/598086
An urgent call to the Heads of State and Government of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan.
M Zakir Hossain Khan, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Change Initiative, urges the leaders of these eight Hindu Kush Himalaya nations to forge a Hindu Kush Himalaya Pact for Survival, Nature and Shared Prosperity.
The appeal calls on leaders to move beyond geopolitical divisions, convene an HKH Leaders’ Summit on Nature, Water and Survival, and develop a time-bound regional pact for ecological security and shared survival.
It sets out six priorities for collective action:
• Cross-border early warning and disaster intelligence.
• Binding safeguards for transboundary rivers and infrastructure.
• Regional emergency response and resilience.
• Mountain, Indigenous and local communities at the centre of decisions.
• Ecosystem restoration and greater resilience finance.
• Natural Rights Led Governance (NRLG).
Shared mountains. Shared rivers. Shared risks. Shared knowledge. Shared responsibility. Shared survival.
Read the full letter in the two accompanying pages.
Sovereignty for Nature, Survival for All.
#HinduKushHimalaya #SharedProsperity #RegionalCooperation #NRLG #ChangeInitiative
At the Joint CTF–SCF Trust Fund Committee meeting at IFC Headquarters in Washington, M. Zakir Hossain Khan, Chief Executive of Change Initiative and SCF-CIF Observer, presented key messages on behalf of CIF Observers, calling for the emerging CIF strategy to move beyond an integrated investment framework toward an equity, justice and nature-centred delivery model.
The intervention carried forward recommendations from the 2nd South Asia Stakeholders Meeting, which brought together around 200 civil-society, youth, think-tank and public-sector participants. Five shifts were emphasized-from national projects to basin and ecosystem systems; response to prevention; centralized delivery to community stewardship; energy access to Nature-Smart Energy; and debt exposure to climate-finance justice.
The core message was clear, CIF should move from financing projects to financing resilience systems, from central delivery to stewardship, from post-disaster response to prevention, and from mobilizing capital to delivering climate-finance justice for people and nature.
#ClimateFinance #CIF #ClimateJustice #NatureSmartEnergy #SouthAsia #ChangeInitiative
Bangladesh can expand renewable energy without sacrificing agricultural land.
A recent study by Change Initiative highlights the country’s substantial untapped solar potential. Rooftop solar in Dhaka alone could generate nearly 11,000 MW. Nationwide, a Zero-Arable-Land approach combining rooftop and floating solar with suitable spaces across industries, small enterprises and BSCIC estates could deliver approximately 22,000 MW of clean electricity.
The opportunity is already above us and around us. What Bangladesh needs now is effective policy, accessible finance and timely implementation.
-@Zhkhaneco @dw_bengali
#RooftopSolar #RenewableEnergy #Bangladesh #ChangeInitiative
Full video link: facebook.com/reel/1610898519…
Solar Power Must Be Bangladesh’s Highest Energy Priority
Bangladesh must place the rapid expansion of solar power at the centre of its strategy to meet growing electricity demand while safeguarding economic stability, said M Zakir Hossain Khan Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Change Initiative, in remarks to Jatiya Arthaniti.
While a new Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) at Matarbari may be necessary to strengthen near-term energy security, it must not create additional financial liabilities for the government or the public. Before proceeding, authorities should transparently examine the cost overruns, alleged corruption and unsustainable debt associated with past publicly financed projects.
Reliable energy is essential to keep the economy moving. However, excessively costly electricity cannot be sustained indefinitely through large public subsidies particularly when the government has limited fiscal space to absorb new financial pressure.
Bangladesh therefore needs a solar-first energy strategy, rigorous scrutiny of major infrastructure investments and stronger protection of public finances. Energy security must be achieved without locking the country into costly fuel imports and long-term debt burdens.
#SolarPower #RenewableEnergy #EnergySecurity #EnergyTransition #FiscalResponsibility #Bangladesh #ChangeInitiative
@Zhkhaneco
Full article link: jatiyoarthoniti.com/2026/09/…
Bangladesh targets 20% renewable electricity 10,000 MW by 2030: 5,500 MW rooftop and 4,500 MW ground-mounted solar. OPEX finance, approvals, grid readiness & storage are essential to protect farmland and cut fossil-fuel dependence.
@Zhkhaneco
#Bangladesh #RenewableEnergy #EnergySovereignty
Bangladesh’s climate finance system suffers from fragmented institutions, poor coordination, insufficient international financing, weak monitoring, and serious integrity risks. The environment ministry, Economic Relations Division, finance and planning authorities, sector ministries, Bangladesh Climate Change Trust and development partners are all involved, alongside carbon market actors. There has been no sufficiently strong body to coordinate their work.
The NCCF must address three challenges: mobilising finance, improving coordination and ensuring integrity. Its mandate covers national strategy and policy, policy reform, international financing, monitoring, carbon markets and the resolution of disputes between ministries.
Bangladesh needs one place where climate finance ambition, authority, accountability and delivery finally meet.
@Zhkhaneco
#ClimateFinanceJustice #FinanceTheFrontlines #NCCFBangladesh #ClimateAccountability #CommunityLedAdaptation #LossAndDamageFinance #ChangeInitiative
