Staff Correspondent

Dhaka North and South City Corporations (DNCC and DSCC) on Sunday unveiled the capital city’s first-ever climate action plan setting a target to become carbon-neutral by 2050.

The two city corporations have set an ambitious target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 14.9% by 2030, 33.8% by 2040 and 70% by 2050.

The action plan was unveiled at a programme at the Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban, University of Dhaka with Environment, Forest and Climate Change minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury in the chair. DSCC Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh and DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam were also present on the occassion.

Environment minister Saber announced that DNCC and DSCC would jointly implement the climate action plan in the capital city noting joint declaration by the two cith corporatioins was much needed to lessen the climate change impact on two crore city dwellers.

He said the action plan includes urban afforestation through modern technologies for reducing the severity of climate change-fuelled heat waves. A new satellite image would be developed for identifying areas requiring forestations in the capital. Then, trees would be planted in the designated areas, the minister added.

In 2021-22, 7.65 million tonnes of carbon dioxide with an average per capita emission of 1.28 tonnes were emitted at DNCC. The nationwide per capital emission was 1.17 tonnes carbon dioxide in 2012.

The most greenhouse gas emitting source in DNCC was residential areas.

The estimated carbon dioxide emissions in 2021-22 for DSCC were 5.66 million tonnes with an average per capita emission of 1.32 tonnes.

In DSCC too, the most emitting source was residential areas.

In its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), Bangladesh has set a target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 89.47 metric tonnes before 2030.

The plan unveiled Sunday has determined strategies for achieving the NDC target by improving the municipality services. As per the action plan, DNCC aims for 100% collection and transportation of solid waste by 2050 chiefly through recycling.

Speaking as the chief guest, environment minister Saber demanded Bangladesh be compensated for the climate change-related losses incurred largely by the world’s industrialised nations.

He said, “Bangladesh contributes only 0.36% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the world, but is the biggest victim of it. The industrialised and developed countries are emitting at a high rate but are not compensating the victims [accordingly]. If Bangladesh were in this position [that of developed nations], they [the developed nations themselves] might have imposed sanctions on many fronts. [But we cannot do the same with the rich nations] As we are in a weak position to hold big players accountable …. we have to move forward recognising our limitations."

He said the government has planned for a climate resilient development fund worth Tk32,000 crore.

Speaking on the occasion DSCC Mayor Taposh said that the government would set aside a special fund in the budget for implementing the DSCC action plan and sought more budget support from the ministry of environment.

C40 Cities Executive Director Mark Watts, C40 Cities Managing Director for Regions and Mayoral Engagement Shruti Narayan, ICLEI South Asia Executive Director Emani Kumar, urban planner Professor Nazrul Islam and University of Dhaka Vice Chancellor Dr ASM Maksud Kamal spoke on the occasion among others.