Govt to ready NAMA proposal to get carbon fund

The government is set to prepare a national appropriate mitigation action (NAMA), a mechanism to get carbon fund by introducing carbon emission-free transport sector including rail and road in Dhaka city.
Officials said NAMA Urban Passenger Transport Dhaka was to reduce significantly green house gas emissions from urban passenger transport and improve sustainable development indicators in Dhaka.
They said the draft NAMA proposal on inter-urban railways and Dhaka urban transport has already been prepared with the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) support and it is now waiting to get opinions of all stakeholders.
NAMA, according to them, is prepared by the developing countries to reduce green house gas (GHG) emission from the transport sector as the carbon emission mechanism known as 'clean development mechanism' failed earlier to generate the sector's interest in preparing transport-related carbon projects.
Meanwhile, the state-owned Bangladesh Railway (BR) and the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) have taken a number of projects like bus rapid transit and mass rapid transits which also help reduce carbon emission.
According to official information, NAMA is a holistic climate mitigation instrument for reducing GHG ensuring benefits like reduced air pollution, better health, reduced traffic accidents etc.
It is also considered by some countries as an instrument for achieving Intended National Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted for the 21st Paris Conference of the Parties (COP) in 2015.
Bangladesh's INDC commits to mitigate GHG emissions by implementing a number of policies and measures by the year 2030.
The sources concerned said the draft NAMA proposal will be finalized after incorporating all the feedbacks and comments of the stakeholders, which have already been taken during a workshop organised by the BR on October 4.
They said after finalizing the NAMA, the government will have to register with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for its applications targeting potential financiers.
The Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Road, Transport and Bridges have already taken policies, programmes and projects highlighting fuel efficiency and reduction of carbon emission, the officials said.
These policies, programme and projects are complied with domestic, regional and local level action plan in the NAMA proposal, they added.
Sustainable and modern low carbon transportation systems can help increase competitiveness and prove to be attractive to top companies for financing and the NAMA will thus help the country, said an official involved with preparation of the proposal.
He said the NAMA will help the country find new source of funding by matching its actions with mitigation, adaptation, technology and capacity building.
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