Experts at a roundtable called for a parliamentary discussion to develop the country's Enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) for carbon emission reduction.
Expressing their utter disappointment at the interim report on Bangladesh’s enhanced NDC, which was submitted to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), they also opined that no quantified emission reduction target was set in the interim report while the report was developed without any broad- based consultation with respective ministries, departments and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
Their call and opinion came at a roundtable discussion styled ‘Perspective and Expectations from Enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to Lessen the Climate Change Impacts in Bangladesh’ held at the Daily Star Centre in the capital on Saturday.
Center for Participatory Research and Development (CPRD) organised the event.
Md Shamsuddoha, chief executive of CPRD, presented the keynote speech and chaired the discussion.
The former research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Dr M Assaduzzaman, directors of the Department of Environment Md Ziaul Hoque and Mirza Showkat Ali, Director (Environment and Climate Change) of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) Dr Fazle Rabbi Sadek Ahmed, ex-additional secretary of environment, forest and climate change ministry Dr Nurul Qader, President of Bangladesh Environmental Journalist Forum Qamrul Islam Chodhury and Utpal Dutta, an energy expert, among others, were present at the function.
In the keynote presentation, Mr Shamsuddoha stressed the importance of the enhanced carbon emission reduction to limit global warming to well below 2.0 degrees Celsius from the pre-industrial era.
Quoting IPCC’s 1.5 degrees Celsius report published in 2018, he insisted that the earth has already warmed to 1.1 degrees Celsius and the world has only a decade left to turn-down global emission, otherwise the earth may warm up to 3.0 to 4.0 degrees Celsius.
Speaking at the programme, Dr Nurul Qader said everyone’s participation in the NDC is necessary but such endeavour to develop a national level document considering stakeholder’s opinion is time consuming.
Dr Asaduzzaman said that the emission of carbon dioxide mainly is contributed by the energy sector.
The NDC document must be based on a participatory process and it should be sent to the parliament for approval. Without the approval from the national parliament, the NDC would be considered a mere ministerial document, he added.
Mirza Showkot Ali said our country has targeted mainly three sectors to reduce the GHG emission.
The country could not consider other sectors because of having not enough data in hand. It should also consider other sectors and quantification of the GreenHouse Gases (GHG) emission and targeted reduction while submitting the Enhanced NDC, he added.
Ziaul Hoque emphasised that the potential sectors should be identified which can be counted in the Enhanced NDC.
In the concluding speech, Dr Fazle Rabbi Sadik said Bangladesh has to set its priority sectors first.
Many countries are yet to submit the NDC which creates doubt about the commitments that the countries made to reduce the GHG emission, he added.
While presenting the keynote paper, Md Shamsuddoha also recommended that carbon emission could significantly be reduced from the construction sector. The implications of effective building code for the development of infrastructures will lessen the carbon emission.
All the available transports could be categorised based on their fitness and fuel efficiency, he also suggested, adding that the less energy efficient vehicles could be replaced by the vehicles which can ensure the use of less energy and therefore emission.
The ongoing construction of Metro Rail project in Dhaka can reduce 14.9 per cent mobility stress on Dhaka’s transport movement. Conditional NDC can include the expansion of Mass Rapid Transit in Dhaka and other metropolitan cities, he insisted.
Machineries of the apparel sector can be made more efficient to mitigate the carbon emission from this sector, he added.
sajibur@gmail.com