Climate Finance Governance in Bangladesh: Mechanisms, Institutional Challenges, and Policy Pathways

Climate change poses a severe threat to developing economies, particularly those that combine limited adaptive capacity with high exposure to environmental hazards. Bangladesh ranks among the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world owing to its low-lying deltaic terrain, high population density, and recurrent exposure to catastrophic weather events. In this setting, climate finance plays a crucial role in adaptation and mitigation, in strengthening resilience, and in advancing sustainable development. This paper examines the governance architecture of climate finance in Bangladesh by analysing its principal funding sources, institutional frameworks, and governance challenges. Adopting a qualitative research methodology, the study draws on secondary data from the Economic Relations Division, the Ministry of Finance, Bangladesh Bank, national policy documents, reports from international organisations, and the academic literature in order to assess both domestic and external climate-funding channels. International mechanisms such as the World Bank and the Green Climate Fund, together with domestic instruments such as the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund, constitute important sources of finance. The findings indicate that although Bangladesh has established several significant climate-finance mechanisms, persistent governance weaknesses, institutional fragmentation, limited technical capacity, complex funding procedures, and low private-sector participation impede the effective utilization of these resources. The paper concludes with policy recommendations to strengthen governance frameworks, improve institutional coordination, and expand green financing initiatives to enhance climate investment and resilience in Bangladesh.