The government decided to generate electricity through natural gas and renewable energy projects on the cancelled six coal-fired power project sites, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in his budget speech in parliament on Thursday.
However, the minister didn’t specify the six coal-fired power project sites the government had selected.
The government cancelled the six coal-fired power plants along with four others in June last year due to environmental reasons.
The total 10 coal-fired power plants worth $12 billion were supposed to generate 8,600MW of electricity.
On six sites of those 10 power plants, the government will now generate power through renewable and gas-based power plants.
In this regard, Power Secretary MD Habibur Rahman told The Business Post that the government had plans to generate LNG and renewable electricity on the cancelled coal-fired power project sites.
But for that purpose more feasibility study has to be carried out, he said.
AHM Mustafa Kamal said in his budget speech steps had been taken to make all existing industries and newly established industries environment friendly.
“We are working on ensuring availability of 40 percent of our energy resources from renewable sources by 2041,” he said.
Finance minister mentioned that considering immense importance of environmental protection, the government had made it mandatory to follow a pragmatic and inclusive environment-friendly plan in all development activities while addressing the risks of climate change.
As part of the implementation of the global carbon emissions reduction target, the country’s updated ‘Nationally Determined Contribution’ was finalized in August 2021.
By 2030, the target of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions has been set at 6.73 per cent with the country’s own financing and technological capabilities.
Another 15.12 per cent of this emission reduction has been provisioned subject to the availability of international funding and technical assistance.
On the other hand, the process of formulating a ‘National Adaptation Plan’ to determine the long-term integrated adaptation strategy together with an action plan to tackle the country’s climate change is at the final stage and the updating of ‘Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan’ formulated in 2009 is in progress.
The cancelled projects are Patuakhali 660x2MW Coal-Fired Power Plant, North Bengal 1,200MW Thermal Power Plant, Maowa 522MW Coal-Fired Power Plant, Dhaka 282MW Coal-Fired Power Plant, Chittagong 282MW Coal-Fired Power Plant, Khulna 656MW Coal-Fired Power Plant, Maheshkhali 1320MW Coal-Fired Power Plant, Singapore-Bangladesh 700MW Coal-Fired Power Plant and CPGCBL 1,2MW Coal-Fired Power Plant.
