Australia will provide 16 million US dollars as grants to Bangladesh for facing the challenges caused by climate change impact.

This was disclosed during a meeting between State Minister for Environment and Forest Dr Hasan Mahmud and Australian Climate Change Affairs Minister Greg Combet in Australian capital Canberra onTuesday.

Both the ministers vowed to work together on environmental issues in the future.

The Australian minister lauded different

steps taken by Bangladesh government for facing challenges of adverse impact of climate change and assured to further strengthen assistance and cooperation in this connection.

In another meeting yesterday, Peter Baxter, director general of Australian development agency Aus-AID, told the Bangladesh minister that the agency decided to expand the areas of cooperation in Bangladesh and further strengthen its activities in Bangladesh in the field of climate change and reduction of disasterin the future.