Energy Transition in Bangladesh 2026: Legal Framework, Power Projects and Carbon Markets

Energy transition Bangladesh: the 2026 legal and investment framework

The energy transition Bangladesh has committed to is now being built in law rather than announced in speeches. Between 2024 and 2026 the country repealed the special provisions regime that delivered most of its private power, wrote the repeal into an Act of Parliament, restored the regulator's exclusive control of tariffs, adopted a Renewable Energy Policy with targets of 20 per cent by 2030 and 30 per cent by 2040, replaced its PPP and investment authorities with a single statutory body, and began issuing authorisations for internationally transferable carbon credits. Each of those changes alters how a power or climate project is procured, documented, financed and defended.

This guide is written for sponsors, lenders, industrial buyers of green power and carbon developers who need one view of the whole transition. It covers the master plans, the coal and gas trajectory, the end of the 2010 special law and the review of legacy power contracts, the 2026 investment routes, the legal path for a power plant, and the Article 6 and voluntary carbon framework. Where a companion TRW guide covers a topic in depth, we link to it.

Summary: Bangladesh's transition rests on policy targets rather than statutory mandates: 20 per cent of electricity demand from renewables by 2030 and 30 per cent by 2040 under the Renewable Energy Policy 2025. The legal machinery behind it changed sharply in 2026. Power projects are now procured competitively after the repeal of the 2010 special law, PPP projects run under the Invest Bangladesh Act 2026, BERC alone sets tariffs, and carbon credits require a government letter of authorisation under an Article 6 framework still being finalised.

Key point: The Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provisions) (Repeal) Act 2026, Act No. 18 of 2026, is deemed effective from 28 November 2024. It validates contracts already signed under the 2010 law and lets them run, but expressly reserves the government's right, in the public interest, to review anything done under the repealed Act and to take any step in respect of it. Every legacy power contract therefore carries a statutory review risk.

At a glance

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Table of Contents

How the energy transition Bangladesh is pursuing is structured in law

Three different kinds of instrument drive the transition, and they carry very different legal weight. Statutes, such as the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Act 2003 and the Invest Bangladesh Act 2026, bind everyone and can be enforced in court. Policies, such as the Renewable Energy Policy 2025, set direction and incentives but do not of themselves create enforceable rights. Plans, such as the Integrated Energy and Power Master Plan 2023, guide procurement and investment decisions but can be revised by executive decision. Investors who treat a policy target as a legal entitlement, or a master plan as a guaranteed pipeline, misprice the risk.

The institutions that matter

The Power Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources sets policy and approves procurement. The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) is the single buyer for grid-scale power and the counterparty to most power purchase agreements. The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) licenses generation and sets tariffs. The Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) is the nodal agency for renewables under the 2025 policy.[5] The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change houses the Designated National Authority for carbon markets,[16] and its Department of Environment issues location and environmental clearances.[20] Invest Bangladesh Authority now handles investment registration and PPP.[12]

Renewable energy targets under the Renewable Energy Policy 2025

The Renewable Energy Policy 2025 was published on the Power Division's website in June 2025, seventeen years after the first renewable policy. It aims to meet at least 20 per cent of national power demand from green sources by 2030, offers a ten-year corporate tax exemption for renewable producers followed by five years of partial exemption, and lets residential, industrial and commercial consumers install systems on rooftops or premises.[5] It also commits SREDA to introduce a renewable purchase obligation for utilities and selected consumers, a tradable renewable energy certificate for each megawatt-hour, and peer-to-peer trading of surplus power.[5]

The targets after the 2026 election

The elected government has kept the targets. On 7 June 2026 the Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Iqbal Hassan Mahmood, told Parliament that under the 2025 policy the government aims to meet 20 per cent of electricity demand from renewables by 2030 and 30 per cent by 2040, against installed renewable capacity of 1,781.09 MW. He reported 26 renewable plants totalling 1,172 MW under construction, tenders for a further 15 projects of 665 MW expected on the grid by 2029, and a long-term goal of 10,000 MW of renewable capacity.[6]

Targets are policy, not law

No statute obliges any person to meet the 2030 or 2040 targets, and the renewable purchase obligation and certificate system still depend on SREDA guidelines. The practical consequence is that the targets support procurement and incentives but cannot be enforced by a developer. Bankability must come from the contract, the tariff and the security package, not from the policy. The detail of the policy, SREDA's statutory role and the tax regime are covered in our guide to renewable energy law in Bangladesh.

How the targets fit NDC 3.0

Bangladesh submitted its third nationally determined contribution to the UNFCCC on 28 September 2025. It projects emissions rising from 252.04 MtCO2e in the 2022 base year to 418.40 MtCO2e by 2035 under business as usual, and commits to an unconditional reduction of 26.74 MtCO2e (6.39 per cent) and a further 58.23 MtCO2e (13.92 per cent) conditional on international support. The energy sector is expected to deliver 69.84 MtCO2e of reductions by 2035 through renewable generation, storage, lower grid losses and the replacement of liquid-fuel peaking plants.[15] The power sector is therefore the core of both the climate commitment and the carbon market.

IEPMP 2023 and the draft master plan: the planning gap in energy transition Bangladesh policy

The Integrated Energy and Power Master Plan 2023 (IEPMP) remains the last master plan adopted for the sector. It was criticised for inflated demand projections, a heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels and a limited role for renewables, and the interim government decided to revisit it. The result was a draft Energy and Power Sector Master Plan covering 2026 to 2050 (EPSMP), presented in January 2026.[9]

What the draft EPSMP proposes

The draft sets renewable shares of 20 per cent by 2030, 30 per cent by 2040 and 50 per cent by 2050. According to the Centre for Policy Dialogue, it also forecasts demand of 40,836 MW by 2040, outlines new coal-fired capacity and renewed domestic coal extraction, and plans one further floating storage and regasification unit and a land-based LNG terminal. Its definition of renewable energy includes hydrogen and ammonia co-firing alongside solar and wind, and it places smart-grid development in the post-2040 phase even though the existing grid can absorb only about 20 per cent variable renewable power.[9]

Status in 2026

The CPD urged the interim government not to approve the draft before the February 2026 election and to leave the decision to the elected government.[9] Until a plan is formally adopted, investors should treat the planning baseline as unsettled and rely on what is actually being procured, not on capacity figures that may change.

Coal, gas and LNG: phase-down by policy, not prohibition

There is no statutory coal ban and no legislated phase-out date in Bangladesh. The shift away from coal operates through planning, procurement and tax. The draft EPSMP shows that coal has not been written out of the planning conversation: it proposes new coal plants and revived domestic coal mining under the banner of resource optimisation.[9] At the same time, the income tax exemption for private power companies under SRO 208 expressly excluded coal-based companies, while a separate and longer exemption under SRO 400 now applies only to renewable projects commencing commercial production between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2030.[7]

Gas and LNG remain central to every draft plan, including new regasification capacity in the EPSMP,[9] and the energy transition Bangladesh is undertaking is in practice a transition from imported fuel oil and LNG exposure towards solar, storage and efficiency, rather than an immediate exit from fossil fuels. Which fossil assets are dispatched, renegotiated or retired early will be decided by contract review and tariff policy, which is why the legacy review below matters to new investors too.

Unwinding the special provisions regime

For fifteen years most private power capacity was awarded under the Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provisions) Act 2010, Act No. 54 of 2010, which allowed negotiated, unsolicited awards. Following a public-interest writ petition, the High Court Division struck down two of its provisions, sections 6(2) and 9.[2] The interim government then repealed the Act by an ordinance gazetted on 28 November 2024.[2]

The Repeal Act 2026 and its saving clause

Parliament replaced the ordinance with the Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provisions) (Repeal) Act 2026, Act No. 18 of 2026, dated 10 April 2026 and deemed effective from 28 November 2024. Section 2(2) provides that contracts executed under the 2010 Act, and steps taken under them, are deemed validly made; that ongoing activities under those contracts continue as if the Act had not been repealed; and that, notwithstanding both, the government reserves the right in the public interest to review any activity taken under the Act and to take any step in respect of it. Section 3 repeals the 2024 ordinance.[1]

Our guide to energy law in Bangladesh analyses the repeal and the wider statutory framework clause by clause.

Projects that had only a letter of intent

The saving clause protects executed contracts, but awards that had not reached signature were treated differently. BPDB, on the Power Division's instruction, terminated the letters of intent issued to 34 solar projects under the 2010 Act, which had no signed implementation agreement, power purchase agreement or land lease, and directed that such projects proceed through open tender. Developers filed writ petitions and the High Court Division issued rules on the validity of the ordinance and the cancellation letters.[2] In an earlier case the court held a BPDB cancellation illegal because it had not been decided by the highest decision-making authority; whether the saving clause protects cancelled letters of intent remains unresolved.[7]

The review of legacy IPP contracts

A national review committee was formed on 5 September 2024, chaired by retired High Court Division judge Moinul Islam Chowdhury, to examine contracts signed under the 2010 Act. It submitted its final report to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources on 20 January 2026.[3] Its sector-wide findings were stark: between fiscal years 2011 and 2024, payments to independent power producers rose eleven-fold while generation rose fourfold, and the committee estimated the annual cost of excess or idle capacity at between USD 900 million and USD 1.5 billion.[3]

The Adani agreement

The committee found that the evidence of irregularities in the 25-year agreement with Adani Power was sufficient to justify cancellation and recommended proceedings at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, leaving the decision to the next government. A committee member said the contracted price of 8.61 US cents per unit had risen to 14.87 cents in 2025 through the contract's clauses, adding USD 400 to 500 million a year, and evidence was passed to the Anti-Corruption Commission.[3] Separately, the High Court Division had stayed an arbitration over unpaid bills until the committee reported, an unusual intervention in a signed PPA with an international arbitration clause.[7]

The elected government's position

On 2 April 2026 the Power Minister told Parliament that, based on the committee's report, the options of international arbitration or revising the agreement through discussion with Adani Power were under active consideration.[4] More broadly, operating projects faced pressure during the transition to revisit tariffs outside the contractual adjustment mechanisms, an issue that has received less attention under the current government.[7] For any investor in an energy transition Bangladesh project, the lesson is that sanctity of contract is now argued against a statutory review power and a documented public-interest record, and project documents should be drafted with that in mind.

Transition investment routes in 2026

The transition is no longer a single-buyer story. In 2026 there are four routes to market for new clean capacity, and choosing one is the first legal decision on any project, because it fixes who bears offtake, land and payment risk.

Utility-scale tenders with BPDB

BPDB now procures solar capacity through open international tenders. On 27 April 2026 it invited bids for ten grid-tied plants totalling 495 MW, sized from 25 MW to 100 MW and sited near substations, under a one-stage, two-envelope process with tender security of USD 5,000 per MW. The earlier round of 55 plants totalling 5,238 MW, floated between December 2024 and March 2025, drew proposals for only about 900 MW, which industry attributed to the absence of sovereign guarantees; BPDB instead offered a 20-year PPA with a commitment to buy all electricity produced.[10]

The position moved again in August 2026. The Power Division asked BPDB to incorporate a payment guarantee provision in future renewable tenders, after lenders including ADB and JICA had reminded the government of contractual obligations to issue payment guarantee letters.[11] Bidders should confirm that the restored protection actually appears in the bid documents they are pricing.

Merchant and corporate power purchase agreements

The 2025 policy on private participation in renewable generation, which the Power Minister described in Parliament as the Policy for Enhancing Private Sector Participation in Renewable Energy-Based Power Generation 2025, allows private investors to build renewable plants and sell either through the distribution utilities' networks or directly to large and bulk consumers under their own arrangements.[6] Under this merchant framework, transmission and distribution networks are used through open access or wheeling, and the policy contemplates payment security, direct agreements, lender step-in rights, termination payments and change-in-law protection.[7] This is the route most relevant to garment and textile exporters that must evidence clean power to international buyers.

Rooftop solar and net metering

The Net Metering Guideline 2025 lets consumers install renewable systems on their premises, consume the output, export surplus to the grid and receive billing credits or settlement payments, and it recognises both self-financed and third-party OPEX models.[7] In September 2026 the government added an incentive tariff of Tk 10.50 per kWh for surplus power from eligible rooftop systems with batteries installed by 28 February 2027, payable for three years to 28 February 2030 and settled quarterly into consumers' bank accounts. The government said it wants at least 5 GW of net-metered solar by the following summer.[8]

PPP projects on government land

The Guidelines for Development of Renewable Energy Projects using Land Owned by Government Agencies under PPP Modality 2026 make BPDB the contracting authority even where another agency owns the land, which may receive a lease fee, a minority equity stake or both. A facilitation agreement reintroduces, in substance, the support function of the old implementation agreement.[7] Those guidelines were framed as a route to power projects under the PPP Act 2015. That Act has since been repealed by the Invest Bangladesh Act 2026, discussed below, so each guideline must now be read against Chapter 8 of the new Act.[12] Our guide to PPP projects in Bangladesh covers the PPP process in detail.

Sponsors increasingly combine routes, and each combination needs its own consent map and security package.

Power plant project development: the legal path

Whether the plant is a 100 MW solar park, a gas-fired IPP or a battery-backed merchant project, the legal sequence follows the same logic: secure the right to develop, form and register the project company, obtain the licence and clearances, sign the project agreements, assemble the land and close the financing. The detail below is specific to the 2026 position.

Procurement: tender, unsolicited proposal or merchant

Since the repeal of the special law, BPDB procurement runs through competitive tendering under the public procurement framework.[7] Unsolicited proposals have not disappeared, but they now sit inside the PPP chapter of the Invest Bangladesh Act 2026. Section 37 allows any private entity to submit an unsolicited proposal for a PPP project to the contracting authority or Invest Bangladesh Authority in accordance with guidelines, and requires the proposal to be evaluated under those guidelines.[12] Merchant projects under the 2025 private participation policy avoid BPDB procurement altogether but need a buyer, network access and regulatory approvals.

The Invest Bangladesh Act 2026

The Invest Bangladesh Act 2026, Act No. 104 of 2026, is dated 16 July 2026 and came into force on 20 August 2026 by SRO No. 307. It establishes Invest Bangladesh Authority, repeals the Bangladesh Economic Zones Act 2010, the PPP Act 2015, the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority Act 2016 and the One Stop Service Act 2018, and dissolves BEZA, the PPP Authority and BIDA. Section 66(2) treats acts done and steps taken under the repealed laws as done under the new Act, and pending proceedings continue under it.[12] Registrations, approvals and PPP contracts obtained from the old bodies should be checked against the new Act and its rules as they are issued.

Project company and registration

Power projects are almost always developed through a Bangladeshi special-purpose company, which allows lenders to take security over shares and assets and ring-fences liabilities. Incorporation, foreign shareholding and investment registration are covered in our guide to energy company registration in Bangladesh.

BERC licence

Section 27 of the BERC Act 2003 prohibits anyone from engaging in power generation, transmission, distribution, supply or storage without a BERC licence or an exemption, and section 28 empowers BERC to issue licences for each activity under procedures it prescribes. Section 32 requires BERC's prior permission before a licensee sells, mortgages, leases or otherwise transfers its undertaking, which matters for lender security and later M&A.[13]

Tariffs are set by BERC under section 34 after a hearing. The BERC (Amendment) Act 2026, Act No. 40 of 2026, deleted section 34A and repealed the 2024 ordinance that first removed it.[14] Section 34A had allowed the government to raise power and gas prices by executive decision without a BERC public hearing; with it gone, a price change requires a proposal to BERC, a hearing and a decision within 90 days.[21]

Project agreements

The traditional IPP document stack is a power purchase agreement with BPDB, an implementation agreement with the government providing support and backstopping BPDB's obligations, a land lease agreement where public land is used, and, for thermal plants, a gas supply or fuel supply agreement. Recent renewable tenders centre the package on the tender documents and the contract issued with them rather than a separate implementation agreement, and policy-level protections such as payment security, step-in rights and termination payments are not always carried through into the actual contract.[7] Lenders will review each of these points before credit approval.

Land

Land is the binding constraint for utility-scale solar. The Renewable Energy Policy 2025 prioritises land with no agricultural value, including khas land, char areas, riversides and unused land held by agencies such as Bangladesh Railway, the Roads and Highways Department and the economic zones, and encourages agri-voltaic designs.[5] Private land must be aggregated with clean title and registered leases, while public land increasingly comes through the PPP land guidelines.

Environmental clearance

The Environment Conservation Rules 2023, issued by SRO No. 53 dated 5 March 2023, classify projects as green, yellow, orange or red. A new project in the yellow, orange or red category needs both a location clearance certificate and an environmental clearance certificate from the Department of Environment, and gas, electricity and water connections cannot be given to such projects without location clearance. Projects in economic zones and export processing zones need only the environmental clearance certificate.[20] The EIA process is covered in our guide to environmental impact assessment in Bangladesh.

Financing and tax

Debt for transition projects comes from local banks, development finance institutions and export credit agencies, and every lender will test payment security, termination compensation and the assignability of the project agreements. Renewable projects commencing commercial production between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2030 qualify under SRO 400 for a fifteen-year phased exemption: 100 per cent for ten years, 50 per cent for three and 25 per cent for two.[7] The security package, foreign-lender approvals and enforcement are covered in our guide to project finance in Bangladesh.

The development sequence

The steps below reflect how we run a power plant mandate from first instruction to commercial operation in the 2026 framework.

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Two disciplines apply throughout. Keep a single consent register that records every licence, clearance and approval with its expiry and conditions, and reconcile the tender or policy protections against the signed contract before financial close, not after.

Carbon markets: Article 6 and voluntary credits

Carbon finance is the newest layer of the energy transition Bangladesh is building, and the one where the legal framework is least settled. Under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, a host country authorises the transfer of mitigation outcomes abroad and makes a corresponding adjustment so the same reduction is not counted twice. Under Article 6.4, a UN-supervised mechanism issues credits for approved projects. Alongside both sits the voluntary market, where companies buy independently verified credits for their own climate claims.

The institutions

The government formed a Designated National Authority (DNA) in June 2025 under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, headed by the ministry's Secretary, to set carbon trading policy and approve projects. Before implementation, a technical committee under the DNA reviews whether local people were consulted, whether public hearings were held and whether government guidelines were followed.[16]

In September 2026 the government formed a 25-member National Committee on Climate Finance chaired by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, with Environment Minister Abdul Awal Mintoo as vice-chairman. It is tasked with advising on the formulation, approval and implementation of a national carbon credit and climate finance framework aligned with Article 6, providing policy guidance for carbon trading and supervising the DNA.[17]

Is there a national carbon policy?

Not yet in final form. The World Bank has funded the development of a carbon trading framework and a national carbon registry under its Partnership for Market Implementation (PMI) programme, and in January 2026 a DNA member said the framework was close to finalisation and that the government planned to meet 40 to 50 per cent of its NDC target through carbon trading.[16]

In December 2025, at a Dhaka forum co-hosted by Japan's Ministry of the Environment and the Department of Environment, a private-sector guidebook on Article 6 and positive project area lists were pre-launched.[19] The September 2026 committee's mandate to advise on approving the framework confirms that carbon trading still operates through executive instruments rather than a dedicated statute.[17]

The first authorisations and bilateral channels

In August 2026 the Australian clean-cooking developer ATEC announced that it had received a letter of authorisation from the Government of Bangladesh, through the Ministry of Environment, to generate Article 6.2 carbon credits.[18] Japan's Joint Crediting Mechanism is the most developed bilateral channel: Japan and Bangladesh held a bilateral meeting on JCM issues in Dhaka on 8 December 2025, after a business forum at which companies pitched agrivoltaic, nature-based, waste-to-energy and alternate wetting and drying projects.[19]

Voluntary carbon projects and the investor pipeline

Interest is broad. By January 2026 ATEC, Korea's EWC and Japan's Mitsui and Sumitomo were conducting feasibility studies, with Mitsui proposing an alternate wetting and drying project on 250,000 hectares of rice land and Sumitomo a methane project on gas-line leakage; six organisations had proposed afforestation memoranda with the Forest Department, and ADB had signed a memorandum with the government to bring investors to the voluntary market.[16] The state-owned Infrastructure Development Company Limited was the country's first carbon seller, under the Kyoto Protocol, from solar home systems and improved cookstoves.[16]

Structuring a carbon project under Bangladeshi law

Because no statute defines who owns an emission reduction, the legal right to credits in Bangladesh is built from a chain of documents: the right to use the land or asset, the project agreement with any public partner, the government's authorisation and the purchase agreement with the buyer. A gap anywhere in that chain can leave a developer with verified reductions it cannot sell.

Rights to land and the government's share

Forestry projects show the model. The Forest Department has said investors will carry out feasibility studies and prepare a project design document, that it will allow use of the land, and that the share of absorbed carbon going to market and the percentage the government receives will be fixed by negotiation, under either direct investment or a PPP model.[16] The benefit-sharing terms, the duration of land use and the consequences of reversal should be recorded in the agreement before any investment.

Authorisation and corresponding adjustments

For Article 6.2 credits, the letter of authorisation is the critical document. It should state the volume or vintage authorised, the use of the credits, the commitment to corresponding adjustments and any conditions, such as fees, a share of proceeds or restrictions on sectors whose reductions the government wants to keep for its own NDC. Authorising a reduction for export means Bangladesh cannot count it towards its own target, so developers should expect authorisations to be selective, especially in renewable power, which carries the largest share of the NDC's energy-sector reductions.[15]

Community safeguards and process

The DNA's technical committee checks community consultation and public hearings before projects proceed.[16] Developers should document consent, grievance procedures and benefit-sharing from the start, because a defect discovered late can strand an entire issuance.

The purchase agreement

An emission reduction purchase agreement should address delivery risk, the consequences of a refused or withdrawn authorisation, change in law, registry transfer mechanics, price adjustment if a corresponding adjustment is not made, and dispute resolution. Where the buyer is offshore, the agreement should also deal with foreign exchange repatriation and the tax treatment of credit sales, both of which should be settled with advisers before signature. Our guide to climate change law in Bangladesh covers the Climate Change Trust Act, NDC 3.0 and the wider climate finance framework.

How TRW advises on energy transition Bangladesh investments

Transition mandates rarely fit a single practice area: a solar IPP combines procurement, licensing, land, environmental clearance, project finance and, increasingly, carbon. We act across that chain for four types of client.

• Sponsors and developers: bid strategy, PPA and facilitation agreement negotiation, BERC licensing and land structuring.
• Lenders and DFIs: due diligence on project agreements, security, step-in and termination compensation, and the effect of the 2026 statutes on existing approvals.
• Industrial buyers: corporate PPAs, rooftop OPEX contracts and net metering applications.
• Carbon developers and buyers: letters of authorisation, benefit-sharing agreements with public bodies and emission reduction purchase agreements.

We also act in disputes arising from the transition: challenges to cancelled awards, payment and liquidated damages deductions, and tariff or contract review processes. Explore our energy law practice, our renewable energy practice and our climate change law practice.

Energy transition Bangladesh: what to watch in 2026 and 2027

Five developments will decide whether the targets become capacity. First, whether the elected government adopts a revised master plan, and whether it keeps new coal and LNG infrastructure in it.[9] Second, whether the restored payment guarantee appears in the bid documents and signed contracts for the next BPDB solar rounds.[11] Third, how the rules and guidelines under the Invest Bangladesh Act 2026 treat PPP and unsolicited proposals in the power sector.[12] Fourth, the outcome of the Adani decision and the pending challenges to cancelled letters of intent, which will set the tone for contract certainty.[4] [7] Fifth, the final national carbon framework and the pace of further letters of authorisation.[17]

For any party entering the energy transition Bangladesh market now, the earliest decisions carry the most value: which route to market, which counterparty bears which risk, and which documents will hold up under review. If you want a clear view of a project or portfolio, contact TRW.

Frequently asked questions

What are Bangladesh's renewable energy targets in 2026?

Under the Renewable Energy Policy 2025, 20 per cent of electricity demand from renewables by 2030 and 30 per cent by 2040. The Power Minister restated both in Parliament on 7 June 2026, with a long-term goal of 10,000 MW of renewable capacity.[6]

Are the renewable targets legally binding?

No. They are policy targets. The renewable purchase obligation and certificate system announced in the 2025 policy depend on SREDA guidelines, so bankability must come from the contract and tariff rather than the target.[5]

Is the IEPMP 2023 still in force?

It remains the last adopted master plan. The interim government prepared a draft Energy and Power Sector Master Plan for 2026 to 2050, which the CPD urged should be left to the elected government to decide.[9]

Has the 2010 special provisions law been repealed?

Yes. Act No. 18 of 2026, dated 10 April 2026, repealed it with effect from 28 November 2024, saved existing contracts and reserved the government's right to review actions taken under it in the public interest.[1]

What did the national review committee recommend on IPP contracts?

Its final report of 20 January 2026 found evidence sufficient to justify cancelling the Adani agreement and recommended Singapore arbitration, leaving the decision to the elected government, which in April 2026 said arbitration or renegotiation were under active consideration.[3] [4]

Do I need a BERC licence to build a power plant?

Yes, unless exempted. Section 27 of the BERC Act 2003 prohibits power generation, transmission, distribution, supply or storage without a licence or exemption, and section 32 requires BERC's permission to transfer or mortgage the undertaking.[13]

Can unsolicited proposals still be made for power projects?

Only within the PPP framework. Section 37 of the Invest Bangladesh Act 2026 allows unsolicited PPP proposals to be submitted and evaluated under guidelines; the negotiated awards of the 2010 regime are gone.[12]

How does net metering work in Bangladesh in 2026?

Under the Net Metering Guideline 2025 consumers can self-consume and export surplus for credits or payment. Eligible rooftop systems with batteries installed by 28 February 2027 earn Tk 10.50 per kWh for surplus power for three years.[7] [8]

Does Bangladesh have a carbon market law?

Not a dedicated statute. Carbon trading runs through a Designated National Authority formed in June 2025 and a national framework that the Prime Minister-led climate finance committee formed in September 2026 is mandated to help finalise.[16] [17]

Can a company sell Article 6 carbon credits from a Bangladesh project?

Yes, with a government letter of authorisation. ATEC announced in August 2026 that it had received one for Article 6.2 credits; the authorisation, benefit-sharing and corresponding adjustment terms should be settled before investment.[18]