A total of 16 round-the-clock air quality monitoring centres are being set up in Dhaka and other cities in the country to get information on the air pollution level, Finance Minister A H M Mustafa Kamal disclosed in the proposed budget for FY 2021-22 on Thursday.
Information and data collected from these monitoring centres are analysed to determine the air quality index, the minister said.
He further said that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change would get an allocation of Tk 12.23 billion in the proposed budget, up from Tk 10.37 billion in the 2020-21 revised budget.
Besides, a circular has been issued to ensure the mandatory use of eco-friendly blocks instead of bricks by 2025 in government constructions, repair and renovation work.
A project titled ‘Bangladesh: First Biennial Update Report to the UNFCCC’ is underway as part of the UNFCCC’s obligation to create and update national greenhouse gas inventories to address the adverse effects of climate change, the minister mentioned.
The approval process for the ‘Adaptation Initiative for Climate Vulnerable Offshore Small Islands and Riverine Char Lands in Bangladesh’ project to take adaptive action on small islands and offshore islands along climate-vulnerable areas is in progress, he added.
Meanwhile, the government is going to implement the 'Developing Bangladesh National Red List of Plants and Developing Invasive Plant Species Management Strategy for Selected Areas' project, which will create a Red List Index of 1,000 plant species in the country and prepared a management strategy for controlling alien invasive plant species in five selected areas.
Climate policy plans and strategies adopted by the government have been integrated with the government budget management through the "Inclusive Budgeting and Financing for Climate Resilience" project being implemented by Finance Division.
